


The Corrupted Innocent

by Marcus_S_Lazarus



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bela Redeemed, F/M, Original Character(s), Original Seals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-11
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:01:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 81
Words: 210,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23598793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marcus_S_Lazarus/pseuds/Marcus_S_Lazarus
Summary: When Dean finds someone else joined him in his recovery from Hell, he and Bela are forced to re-examine their pasts as they confront their roles in the Apocalypse and form a new relationship
Relationships: Bela Talbot & Deanna Campbell, Bela Talbot/Dean Winchester, Sarah Blake/Sam Winchester
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	1. Rising from Perdition

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU of 'Supernatural' beginning at 'Lazarus Rising' and progressing from there; as with most of my AU fics, I'll primarily focus on those episodes where my changes will have a significant impact on the planned plot, rather than just rewriting everything.

It had been a challenge to penetrate the Gates of Hell to this depth, particularly when so many wanted the target to remain after all that he had done to them, but he had finally recovered the soul of the Righteous Man, taken him to the outskirts of Hell itself, and then infused him with all the power of Heaven that could be spared to return him to his body.

It would not be the most comfortable way to return him to life, but since he couldn't safely transport the soul of the Righteous Man all the way through Hell to reunite his soul with his body somewhere more comfortable without risking the demons reclaiming the soul on the way out, this was the best way.

It was just as he was turning around to return to Heaven- after the strain his new Vessel had been subjected to down here, it would be best to give Jimmy a chance to recuperate- that he was aware of something he had not sensed before.

There was another…

He had been instructed to focus his attention on the Righteous Man to the exclusion of all else- an angel in Hell wasn't a healthy thing by any stretch of the imagination; even Lucifer was rumoured to have taken precautions when circumstances required him to visit Hell personally-, but if he was this close to another… if he had the opportunity to take action…

He had to _try_.

The odds were already so far against them that anything that kept the balance even slightly in their favour had to count for something…

With that thought, he turned his attention from the goal of escape to his new target, his essence focused as he cut through the unsuspecting demons around him like a scalpel; so much attention had been paid to securing the Righteous Man that this area was relatively undefended.

He was weakened by his recent efforts to heal the Righteous Man, but he had enough strength for this, particularly with most of the more powerful demons either up on Earth or deeper in the Pit than his current location; this target was interesting for them, but few demons were aware of her true importance and she was therefore comparatively poorly guarded.

With that oversight in mind, it only took moments for him to annihilate the demons assigned to guard his target, leaving him to turn his attention to the soul they had been attacking. As he had guessed the soul- it was a female, he briefly noted- was scarred, shaken, and injured, but there was still enough humanity in it for him to achieve his goal.

She had been amoral in life, but there was a line between selfishness and true evil that she had not crossed; she had a chance, and, with her importance in the grand scheme in mind, it was a chance that he would give her.

Taking hold of her soul, he forced the second wave of demons attempting to reclaim her away with a burst of angelic power, before using a gentler dose of energy to repair what spiritual damage she had sustained so far; it was impossible to do such a thing on true demons, but she was so close to the line that divided one from the other that it might still be possible…

As he saw the blackened taint that distinguished a demon essence from a human soul begin to retreat, fading away from the strong lines they had been to become fainter trickles, he focused his attention on binding what traits he could completely purge behind a wall.

She would not be a demon, but the potential would always be there unless he was careful; unlike the Righteous Man, who had broken to escape suffering rather than out of a desire to inflict suffering on others, and had done so only after considerable torment, she had lacked the strength of will to resist the transformation that she was experiencing, so the demonic contagion was less easy to purge than it had been for him after so long sinking in.

This kind of healing was a somewhat more haphazard job than he would have liked, but it would do for the moment; he was sure he could work something more long-term out by the time he had returned her to her body.

With her soul repaired to the best of his ability, he took hold of it and began to rise back towards Earth, neatly evading the first few demons attempting to reclaim his prize before he moved beyond the range of their influence; at this point, anything attempting to attack him was so close to Earth that they would require a host to use their powers to have any chance of hurting him.

With the threat of recapture out of the way, he focused on Earth once more, his initial target the small cemetery where her remains had been left after her demise- she had died in a hotel room registered to two men and her body had been virtually mutilated; she had been left in an unmarked pauper's grave after the investigation had turned up nothing but a lack of other identification or any other way of determining who had killed her- before he would turn his attention to a more long-term matter.

Her body had naturally fallen miles away from there, but after what she had endured and what he had recently done, he already knew where he was going to leave her; just because she had fallen alone did not mean that she would return alone.

If anyone would be in a position to help this battered soul fulfil her role in his Father's plan, it would be the Righteous Man himself…

* * *

As she blinked her eyes open, for a moment, she didn't know where she was.  
  
She had experienced nothing but torment for so many years that the sensation of nothing but cool air was almost as much of a shock as the torture had been, prompting her to keep her eyes closed for a few moments to savour the moment before she accepted that it wasn't going to be cut short any time soon; wherever she was, they apparently weren't going to resume the torture just yet.  
  
Sitting up, she found herself in what appeared to be an old forest, close to the centre of some kind of sourceless explosion that had flattened every tree around her current location in a seemingly perfect circular pattern. Looking down at her body, she saw that she was still wearing the dark leather jacket and dark trousers that she had been wearing before-  
  
_**PAIN! FIRE! KNIVES! FLESH! LOSS! INTRUSION!**_  
  
She shied away from those memories instantly; she didn't recall anything specific yet, but she did remember enough to know that she didn't want to explore it further.  
  
It was only when she turned around and saw someone forcing themselves out of the ground- literally out of the ground; it was a man in a loose dark shirt, straining and gasping as he used his arms to haul his way out of a patch of earth that looked like a grave judging by the cross behind him- that she felt inclined to speak, her eyes widening as the man's name came to her.  
  
"Dean…?" she said, her voice surprisingly hoarse and uncomfortable, as though the time she'd spent screaming in agony had affected her body despite its absence when the torture had been taking place.  
  
As the man in question turned to look at her, she couldn't help but smile at the frustration on his face; even after being tormented for so long, old habits were hard to break.  
  
"What the _Hell_ …?" Dean Winchester said, staring at her in exhausted exasperation. " _You're_ here?"  
  
"Come now, Dean," Bela Talbot replied, smiling at the hunter despite her own confusion out of a lack of anything else to do, "I think we've both seen enough to know that this is far from Hell."  
  
It was probably insensitive, but in her current state of shocked confusion, Bela couldn't think of anything better to say.  
  
She might have no idea what had just happened to her, or what she was doing here with Dean Winchester of all people, but she remembered enough of where she'd been to know that _anything_ was an improvement…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to clarify that I'm writing under the assumption that Dean was telling the truth when he initially told Sam and Bobby that he didn't remember his time in Hell, with his memories simply returning over time (I'm guessing that, like Death blocked Sam's memories of the Cage, Castiel erected a temporary wall on Dean's memories of Hell to 'dilute' their emotional impact on Dean so that he would be able to operate mostly like he had been before his time in Hell, rather than the broken mess he would have been otherwise).


	2. Return to the Living

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit of a jump here as I skipped over the incident in the filling station; I thought it more important to get to the meat of the matter as Dean and Bela revealed their resurrection to the rest of the world

Dean had no idea what kind of situation he'd found himself in, but so far he wasn't sure if he should consider it a good one or a bad one. He might be stuck in a small space with the woman who'd made a demonic deal to kill her parents as a teenager, with no other option but to endue her company until they figured out what had just happened to them, but, on the other hand, he was out of Hell, everything from that time was currently just a generally comforting blank, and he was back on Earth just four months after he'd left.

Only four months…

He was grateful as anything that he hadn't been down there so long that he'd be coming back to a world he knew nothing about with everyone he knew dead or ancient, but even that relief wasn't enough to temper his current concern about what could have brought him back; call him a hypocrite, but if Sam had done something stupid…

Of course, that theory kind of hit a stumbling-block when he looked at the person sitting next to him in his current car. The handprints on both their shoulders- his left and her right, even if his shirt and her jacket covered them- seemed like a pretty clear indication that whatever had brought them back had been the same thing, and no matter how hard he tried, Dean couldn't think of any reason why Sam would may a deal to bring Bela back to life along with him; getting the Colt back wasn't worth _that_ kind of effort, and that was the only thing Bela might have known that they couldn't find someone else to do just as easily.

Still, Bela might have been a bit stuck-up, but she'd gone along with his decision to go to Bobby's to reveal their resurrection over anyone else- apparently none of the contacts she'd acquired over her career were the kind she wanted to reveal something like this to-; they'd reached a near-unspoken agreement that it would be best to work out what had brought them back before they even thought about going their separate ways.

This situation was a complete mess, but Dean was going to poke this gift-horse in the mouth all it was worth to figure out what was going on before he gave it up…

Pulling up in front of Singer Salvage, blessedly unchanged since he last saw it, Dean parked the car and looked over at Bela.

"Let me take the lead," he said simply. "Bobby'd probably shoot you even if you _hadn't_ been in Hell; at least he's more likely to listen to me."

"I didn't know you cared," Bela said with a smile.

"Don't," Dean retorted as he opened the door. "Just want to be sure we're not both going back to Hell if one of us bites it."

With that said and his position reinforced, he walked up to the door and began to pound against it, the door finally opening to reveal Bobby on the other side, looking at him with obvious suspicion.

"Surprise," Dean said, out of a lack of anything else to say.

"I… I don't…" Bobby said after a moment's stunned silence.

"Yeah, me neither," Dean replied, as he walked into the house. "But, here I am, and here-"

He was interrupted in his attempt to indicate Bela as Bobby lunged at him with a silver knife, Dean only just managing to grab and deflect the blade and Bobby's arm with it. Bobby retaliated by hitting him in the face with a back-handed attack, sending him staggering into the main living-area, but it was less dangerous than what he could have done.

"Bobby, it's _me_!" Dean yelled in protest.

"My ass!" Bobby retorted, advancing towards him with the knife.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait!" Dean yelled, grabbing a nearby chair and moving it between him and the older hunter. "Your name is Robert Steven Singer. You became a hunter after your wife got possessed, and... you're about the closest thing I have to a father."

"And," Bela added, as she walked into the house, prompting Bobby to turn around and look at her in confusion, "you once gave me a very good deal on an amulet I bought from you in Flagstaff, although I told him that you saved my life when I first brought it up."

"What the _hell_ …?" Bobby said, looking in confusion between them. "What do you-?"

"Exactly; what kind of screwed-up plan would make anyone think sending fakes of _both_ of us to you would make sense?" Dean said, looking urgently at the older man. "Me, I get, but what kind of loopy shapeshifter would think you'd hesitate to stab _her_ even if she _wasn't_ dead?"

"I'm not exactly feeling particularly appreciated here, Dean-" Bela began, looking at him with a warning edge to her voice along with a slight smile to take the edge off it.

"Yeah, well, screw you," Dean said, glaring briefly at her before he looked back at Bobby. "Bobby, it's _me_."

For a moment, Bobby just stared between the two of them, and then he grabbed a gun from a nearby table and tossed the knife he'd been holding earlier over to Dean.

"Prove it," he said simply, training the gun on Dean as he spoke. Nodding in understanding, Dean rolled up his sleeve and drew a line on his arm with the knife, looking solemnly at Bobby as his skin showed no reaction to it.

"Me too?" Bela asked, her expression becoming slightly pained as Dean handed the knife to her before she pushed her sleeve back and followed Dean's example, drawing a line along her arm.

"Dean?" Bobby said, pausing only long enough to confirm the lack of reaction from Bela's cut before he was focused on the younger man once again.

"That's my name," Dean replied, before Bobby walked up to him and threw his arms around him, Dean unable to do anything more than hug him back in relief while Bela looked away, suddenly feeling unusually awkward about her presence as though she was intruding on something.

"It's… it's good to see you, boy," Bobby said, looking warmly at him.

"Yeah, you too," Dean replied with a grin.

"But… how did you bust out?" Bobby asked, looking over at Bela. "And with…?"

"I don't know," Dean replied with a shrug. "I just, uh, I just woke up in a pine box-"

He halted his explanation as Bobby threw a bottle of water in his face, Dean pausing for a moment before he looked back at his friend. "I'm not a demon either, and I checked her earlier; she's clean."

"You did?" Bobby said, looking at Bela in surprise. "How-?"

"He said 'Christo'," Bela replied, looking pointedly at Dean. "A _lot_."

"Had to be sure and I didn't have anything else on me," Dean said briefly, before he looked back at Bobby. "Anyway, I dug my way out of my box, and she was lying beside it, no idea how she got there; figured we'd have a better shot at answers if we stuck together, and… here we are."

"You think the same thing did it?" Bobby asked.

"Well," Bela said, shrugging off her jacket and displaying her right shoulder to Bobby, along with the handprint burned into it, "something gave me this."

"What the Hell?" Bobby said, staring at the print in confusion.

"And there's this," Dean said, shrugging off his own shirt to reveal the similar print on his left shoulder. "Looks like something took hold and dragged us out."

"And… that's it?" Bobby said, looking between them sceptically.

"What do you mean, 'that's it'?" Bela asked.

"Well… I take it we don't need details about what… happened to you?" Bobby said, looking briefly at Bela before he focused his attention on Dean after she gave him a brief nod of confirmation. "And Dean… Your chest was ribbons, your insides were slop, and you've been buried for _four months_. Even if you both slipped out of hell and back into your meat suits-"

"We should look like _Thriller_ rejects, I know," Dean said with a brief nod.

"What do… you remember?" Bobby asked, suddenly more tentative as he looked between them.

"We've gone over it, and not much," Bela said briefly. "I remembered being in pain at one point, but… well, that doesn't narrow it down much."

"What she said; went from Hellhound chew-toy to six feet under, and that's it," Dean confirmed, before he focused his gaze on Bobby. "Where's Sam? I tried his number, but…"

"He's alive, far as I know," Bobby replied.

"Good…" Dean said, before his eyes narrowed. "Wait, what do you mean, as far as you know?"

"I haven't talked to him for months," Bobby replied.

"You're kidding," Dean said, looking at Bobby in frustration. "You just… let him go off by himself?"

"He was dead set on it," Bobby said.

"Winchesters," Bela said, smiling sympathetically at Bobby. "Stubborn as anything when they set their minds on something, aren't they?"

"True," Bobby said, smiling back at Bela before his expression became more stern as he remembered who he was talking to and turned his attention back to Dean. "Anyway, I tried to stop 'im, but these last months haven't been exactly easy, you know, for him or me; we had to _bury_ you."

"Why did you bury me, anyway?" Dean asked.

"I wanted you salted and burned; usual drill," Bobby admitted. "But… Sam wouldn't have it."

"Well, I'm glad he won that one," Dean said.

"He said you'd need a body when he got you back home somehow," Bobby said, his manner grimmer. "That's about all he said."

"Hold on, are you both thinking that _Sam_ did this?" Bela asked, looking between the two men.

"And why not?" Dean retorted, turning back to her. "You saw my grave; it was like a nuke went off there-!"

"It's like you said; why would Sam make any kind of deal to bring _me_ back?" Bela asked (Dean could have sworn he heard a slight sob in her voice at that last statement, but pushed it aside; he didn't care _how_ Bela felt about the idea that she'd had nobody up here). "You, of course, but _me_?"

"Makes a point there, Dean," Bobby said, nodding briefly at her. "Bela here's the hole in that particular theory; no reason Sam'd ask for _her_ to come back."

"Well… looks like we'll just have to work out what did it and take it from there," Dean said, looking firmly at Bobby. "We just got out of one deal, and I'm _not_ letting Sammy get caught up in whatever mojo pulled that last stunt off; we find him, we get a clue."

* * *

Bela had no idea how she'd allowed herself to be convinced to come along with Dean and Bobby on this; they might be good at what they did, and they knew the supernatural like few other people she'd ever met, but having to check out places like this…  
  
Still, at least they had managed to find the missing member of the three amateurish Musketeers- even if Bela wasn't that comfortable returning to a location so close to the area where she had so recently escaped from Hell-; maybe now they'd get some answers…  
  
"So," the young woman who opened the motel room door said, looking at them with a casual ease despite her state of undress, looking at them expectantly, "where is it?"  
  
"Where's what?" Dean asked.  
  
"The pizza?" the woman said. "The one that takes three people to deliver?"  
  
"I think we have the wrong room…" Dean began, before Sam Winchester walked into view from the side, his prior sentence trailing off as his eyes fixed on his brother.  
  
"Heya, Sammy," Dean said after another awkward moment of silence. For a moment, Sam just continued to stare as Dean walked into the room, the woman who'd greeted them stepping aside to let him in, before Sam pulled out a knife and lunged at his brother. Moving so quickly it seemed automatic, Dean blocked Sam's attack long enough for Bobby to pull Sam off, grabbing him around the shoulders.  
  
"Who are you?" Sam yelled, continuing to struggle in Bobby's grip.  
  
"Like you didn't do this?" Dean retorted.  
  
"I thought we agreed I proved that he _didn't_?" Bela cut in.  
  
"He's still the best-" Dean began.  
  
"I did _what_?" Sam interjected, glaring at his brother, not showing any sign that he'd even registered Bela's presence yet.  
  
"It's him, it's _him_ , Sam," Bobby said, desperately addressing the younger Winchester. "I've been through this already; it's _really_ him."  
  
As he finally stopped to process Bobby's words, Sam stopped struggling against Bobby, only able to stare at his older brother in shocked silence as he processed what the older man was saying.  
  
"What…?" he said.  
  
"I know," Dean said, advancing towards Sam slightly cautiously despite the reassuring smile. "I look fantastic, huh?"  
  
With that word, Sam, on the verge of relieved tears, stepped away from Bobby to pull Dean into a desperate hug, Bobby looking warmly at them while Bela tried to ignore the stab of grief she felt; she'd had nobody for her _before_ she'd made her deal, so why was she suddenly getting so caught up in the fact that she didn't get a stupid hug…?  
  
"So," the young woman who'd opened the door said, looking in confusion between Sam and Dean as Sam stepped back, "are you two like… together?"  
  
"What?" Sam said, looking at her as though he'd only just remembered that she was there. "No, no; he's my brother."  
  
"If it's any consolation, I wondered about that once or twice myself," Bela said, smiling sympathetically at the other woman; she knew from experience that Winchester family dynamics were complicated when observed from the outside. "Trust me; it's easier if you don't think about it in depth."  
  
"Right…" the woman said, nodding awkwardly at Bela. "I should… probably go."  
  
To his credit, Sam apparently decided to leave the obvious questions about Bela's presence until the woman had left, even if the other three were left in the awkward position of trying not to watch the woman getting dressed and Sam apparently forgetting her name before she departed, leaving Sam sitting awkwardly on the bed as Dean stood in front of him.  
  
"So tell me," Dean said firmly, "what'd it cost?"  
  
"The girl?" Sam said with a slight smile. "I don't pay, Dean."  
  
"That's not funny, Sam," Dean said. "To bring me back; what'd it cost? Was it just your soul, or was it worse… and why'd you add _her_ to the deal?"  
  
"Wait; you think I brought you _both_ back?" Sam said, looking between Dean and Bela in shock. "Why would I do that for _her_?"  
  
"You know, I'm getting the impression you just don't like me-" Bela said with a mocking smile out of a lack of anything else she could say without giving away more than she wanted to.  
  
"Yeah, wonder what gave you that impression; right now, we need _answers_ ," Dean said, glaring at her before he looked at Sam. "You're telling me you didn't do this?"  
  
"I didn't," Sam said.  
  
"Don't lie to me-!" Dean said with a firm glare.  
  
"I'm not lying!" Sam protested. "I wish I'd done it, but I didn't-!"  
  
"There's no other way that this could have gone down," Dean said, hauling Sam up by the front of his shirt. "Now tell the truth!"  
  
"I tried everything!" Sam protested, forcing Dean off him as he glared at his brother. "I tried opening the Devil's Gate, and I tried to bargain, but no demon would deal, all right? You were rotting in Hell for months- for _months_ \- and I couldn't stop it. So I'm sorry it wasn't me, all right, Dean? I'm sorry."  
  
"It's… it's OK, Sammy," Dean said, after staring silently but appraisingly at his brother for a moment; evidently he wanted time to assess Sam before speaking. "You don't have to apologise; I believe you."  
  
"Don't get me wrong," Bobby put in, "I'm glad that Sam's soul remains intact, but it does raise a sticky question."  
  
"What pulled us out if it wasn't him, right?" Bela asked.  
  
"And what are you even _doing_ here?" Sam asked, looking at Bela.  
  
"No idea," Bela said with a shrug. "I woke up next to your brother's grave, and… well, here we are."  
  
"Near as we can tell, the same thing dragged 'em both out; some weird handprint on their shoulders is the only clue we've got about what that might be," Bobby explained.  
  
"Talking of clues," Bela put in, "if you weren't here for Dean, what are you here for?"  
  
"Looking for Lilith," Sam said firmly.  
  
"Hold on; you went after the demon big cheese by yourself?" Bobby said, looking incredulously at Sam. "Who do you think you are, your old man?"  
  
"Uh… yeah, I'm sorry, Bobby," Sam said, awkward once again. "I should have called; I was… pretty messed up."  
  
"Right…" Dean said, glancing at something in the corner but focusing his attention back on Sam before Bela could see what it was.  
  
"Anyway," Sam continued, "I was tracking these demons in Tennessee, and out of nowhere they took a hard left, booked up here."  
  
"When?" Dean asked.  
  
"Yesterday morning," Sam said.  
  
"In other words, when we got out," Bela noted.  
  
"You think these demons are here 'cause of you?" Bobby asked.  
  
"But why?" Sam pointed out.  
  
"Well, I don't know; some badass demon drags me out and now this?" Dean said with a helpless shrug. "It's gotta be connected somehow."  
  
"How you feelin', anyway?" Bobby asked  
  
"A little hungry," Dean noted with a smile.  
  
"No, I mean, do you feel like yourselves?" Bobby said, looking between the two of them. "Anything strange, or different?"  
  
"Or demonic?" Dean finished. "Bobby, how many times do I have to prove I'm me?"  
  
"And I know we haven't always agreed on things, but I'm still _human_ -!" Bela protested.  
  
"And how can be sure of that?" Bobby protested. "No demon's letting you two loose out of the goodness of their hearts; they've got _something_ nasty planned."  
  
"Well, I feel fine," Dean said, looking over at Bela to receive a confirming nod. "We both do."  
  
"OK, look, this isn't getting us anywhere," Sam said. "So far everything's giving us a load of questions and no clues; we need help."  
  
"I know a psychic," Bobby put in. "A few hours from here. Something this big, maybe she's heard the other side talking."  
  
"Sounds like a plan," Dean said. "So unless Bela has anything else to suggest, seems worth a shot to me."  
  
"I have nothing," Bela said, holding up her hands.  
  
"Nothing you'd like to get in touch with _yet_ , anyway," Sam said, looking at her with a brief glare.  
  
"You know, you _could_ stop that," Bela said, glaring at Sam as Bobby walked out of the room. "Believe me, I don't like being here any more than you do-"  
  
"Doubt that," Dean muttered.  
  
"But, until we all know what happened, I'm not going anywhere until we have some answers," Bela said, looking firmly at Sam. "So, _Sammy_ , either put up or shut up; clear?"  
  
"Easy, Sam," Dean said, as his brother began to get up while glaring at Bela. "Much as I hate to say it, she's right; no point doing anything until we get a better idea what's going on."  
  
"Fine…" Sam said, glaring briefly at Bela for a moment before he sat back down, sighing in frustration.  
  
If Bela wasn't focused on her own concerns about the current situation, she might have allowed herself to feel more upset at the complete lack of appreciation…  
  
In the end, however, the thing that kept on dominating her thoughts right now was simple; she'd been treated with degrees of suspicion and disdain since getting out of Hell, while Dean had been enthusiastically hugged and met with nothing but smiles and relief once they'd confirmed his identity, and she had no reason to expect _anything_ to improve in the future.  
  
Even if her earlier brief flash was enough to assure her that she didn't want to go back to Hell, getting out just seemed so empty when nobody was there to care about the fact that you'd done it…


	3. Angels Watching Over Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus points to anyone who can trace the origin of Bela's moment of recollection during the séance…

Dean had to hand it to Bobby; when it came to contacts in the hunting and supernatural community, he always managed to get the interesting ones.

The trip of the hotel to this place could have been more comfortable if Bela hadn't been in the back seat of the Impala the whole way, but Dean understood why that wasn't practical; until they'd straightened out whatever had brought him and Bela back, there wasn't any point taking the risk to see what would happen if they were separated from each other or something screwy like that.

Besides, with her decision to catch a rest while they were driving, it had given him and Sam a chance to talk, beginning with Dean removing that stupid iPod thing from his baby- even if he hadn't wanted to start playing any music in case their passenger woke up-, and going on to discuss what else Sam had been up to over the summer. The question of how he had gotten away from Lilith after their last bout raised some questions, but at least they didn't have to worry about whatever agenda Ruby had going on any more, and Sam's freaky powers were dormant and staying that way…

Dean's thoughts were ended when the door of the house in front of them opened, revealing an attractive brunette, maybe a few years older than Dean, with long brown hair and a warm smile, grinning at the three hunters and Bela Talbot.

"Bobby!" the woman who had to be the psychic said, giving the older man an enthusiastic hug, lifting him briefly off the ground in a move that surprised both Winchesters and Bela.

"You're a sight for sore eyes," Bobby said, smiling at the woman after she released him.

"So," Pamela said, stepping back to appraisingly study Dean and Sam with her arms folded, "these the boys?"

"And Bela Talbot," Bela said, nodding briefly at the woman; apparently her rest hadn't done much to improve her mood.

"Sam, Dean, Bela," Bobby said, indicating the woman before them. "This is Pamela Barnes, best damn psychic in the state."

"Hey," Dean said, smiling warmly at Pamela, ignoring Sam's awkward greeting; after everything he'd been through, nobody would begrudge him an opportunity like this, right?"

"Mmm-mmm-mmm," Pamela said, looking him over appraisingly. "Dean Winchester, out of the fire and back in the frying pan, huh? Makes you a rare individual."

"If you say so," Dean said; he was trying not to think too much about that part of what had happened to him…

"Come on in," Pamela said, ushering them into her house before she shut the door behind Bela, the house revealing a simple but comfortable style.

"So, you hear anything?" Bobby asked.

"Well, I Oujia'd my way through a dozen spirits," Pamela replied. "No one seems to know who broke these two out, or why?"

"So what's next?" Bobby asked.

"A séance, I think," Pamela replied. "See if we can see who did the deed."

"You're not gonna… summon the damn thing here?" Bobby asked, his expression apprehensive as he looked at her.

"No," Pamela replied reassuringly. "I just want to get a sneak peek at it, like a crystal ball without the crystal."

"I'm game," Dean said with a grin.

"Well… fine," Bela said after a moment's thought, evidently wishing she could offer a better alternative.

* * *

A few minutes later, the five of them were sitting around a black table, the tablecloth covered in symbols that did little to comfort Bela; after the way that symbols had failed her before her death, she wasn't comfortable with something that relied on them again…  
  
To take her mind off the symbols, Bela tried to look at something else, only for her eyes to fall on Dean as he gazed at where Pamela was squatting in front of a cabinet, revealing a distinctive tattoo on her back that apparently gave Dean something else to think about.  
  
"Who's Jesse?" he asked, prompting a laugh from the psychic.  
  
"Well," she said as she looked back at him, "it wasn't forever."  
  
"His loss," Dean said, leaving Bela glaring at him for a moment before she realised what she was doing; what Dean Winchester did in his own time wasn't her business…  
  
"Might be your gain," Pamela said, smiling at him as she stood up with various candles in her hands before she turned her attention back to the séance, Dean saying something to Sam in a low voice that Bela already knew she didn't want to hear.  
  
God, how could people who'd defeated Azazel and everything else she'd heard about the Winchesters over the years be so… _crude_?  
  
Moments like that left her wondering how the Winchesters had become so good at what they did; their approach to hunting seemed so… _relaxed_ at times…  
  
The start of the séance at least gave her something else to focus on, her discomfort at having to hold Bobby's hand after so many indirect threats about the possibility of them shooting her forgotten in favour of the need to get answers about whatever brought her back.  
  
"And," Pamela said, after issuing the instruction about holding hands, "I need to touch something our mystery monster touched."  
  
"Whoa," Dean said, suddenly jumping in his seat. "Well, he didn't touch me there."  
  
Bela might not have been able to see Pamela's hand under the table, but it didn't take a genius to work out what Pamela had been reaching towards even without Dean's reaction. As Dean shrugged off his outer shirt to reveal the handprint, Bela sighed and removed her own jacket before rolling up her sleeve to reveal her own handprint.  
  
"OK," Pamela said, laying her hands on the two prints as the five around the table closed their eyes. "I invoke, conjure, and command you, appear unto me before this circle."  
  
For a moment, there was nothing but the sound of Pamela's voice as she repeated that command, until the sound of static reached Bela's ears as though something had turned on.  
  
"I invoke, conjure, and command…" Pamela began, before she halted as though she'd just heard something. "Castiel? No, sorry, Castiel, I don't scare easily."  
  
"Castiel?" Dean said (Now that Bela heard it, she thought that sounded familiar; where had she heard it before…?)  
  
"Its name," Pamela clarified. "It's whispering to me, warning me to turn back."  
  
As the static continued and the table began to shake, Pamela continued to repeat the same words, over and over; "I conjure and command you, show me your face."  
  
"Maybe we should stop-" Bobby said, as the rattling become more violent.  
  
"I almost got it!" Pamela said, her tone sharp before she continued her earlier chant. "I command you, show me your face! Show me your face now!"  
  
With that word, there was a sudden sense of heat, Bela opening her eyes in time to see the candles flare up in front of her before a scream from Pamela drew her attention to the psychic. Bela only had time to register that Pamela's eyes had suddenly filled with what she could only describe as white flame before the psychic collapsed, the flames and other effects vanishing all at once.  
  
 _Oh God_ … Bela thought to herself, staring in shock at the fallen psychic as the Winchesters and Bobby raced to help her, her eyelids covered with blood and sunken in in a manner that made it clear there was nothing behind them any more.  
  
If whatever had brought her and Dean out of Hell could do that to someone just when they were trying to _look_ at it…

* * *

Sitting in the diner, Dean almost wished that he hadn't seen the shaken look on Bela's face when they'd registered what had happened to Pamela.  
  
It was easy to think of Bela as the heartless bitch who'd killed her parents and would happily screw over everyone else in the name of a quick buck; seeing her show that kind of shock and fear for someone else…  
  
Damnit; here he was, about to enjoy his first bit of good food in months or however long it had been in Hell- something he'd read suggested that time went a bit faster in Hell than it did here, or was he just thinking of that _Buffy_ episode he'd seen once?-, and all he could think about was that Bela Talbot had actually shown some sign of concern for someone else…  
  
"What'd Bobby say?" he asked his brother as Sam sat down opposite him.  
  
"Pam's stable, and out of ICU," Sam said.  
  
"And blind, because of us," Dean said grimly (He was _not_ paying attention to the fact that Bela looked upset about that either; she was just upset because they didn't have any answers…).  
  
"And we still have no clue who we're dealing with," Sam said grimly.  
  
"Aside from the name," Bela put in, sipping at her drink (She hadn't ordered any food; probably thought whatever was on the menu here wasn't good enough for her tastes or something like that).  
  
"Exactly; Castiel," Dean said. "We've got the name; with the right mumbo-jumbo we could summon him, bring him right to us."  
  
"Excuse me?" Sam said, looking at his brother in surprise. "Pam took a peek at him and her eyes burned out of her skull, and you want to have a face to face?"  
  
"You got a better idea?" Dean asked. "After what he did, we _need_ to know-"  
  
"So how about trying to track down those demons I followed here?" Sam pointed out. "They have to know something."  
  
A part of Dean was tempted to admit that Sam made a point, but further conversation was brought to a halt as the waitress they'd spoken to earlier appeared with the ordered pieces of pie, putting them down in front of the brothers before sitting down herself.  
  
"Is this some attempt to ask for a tip?" Bela asked, glaring at the other woman.  
  
"I'm sorry," the waitress said, as her eyes went black. "Thought you were looking for us."  
  
A glance at their surroundings confirmed Dean's worst fears; the diner's other two current residents also showed the black eyes that were a clear sign of demonic possession.  
  
Any other day, he would have commented that at least they didn't have to look very far, but after just getting out of Hell hours ago, this was the last thing he needed…  
  
"Dean Winchester and Bela Talbot," the waitress said, her eyes reverting to normal as a demon in uniform walked over to the door and locked it. "To Hell and back. Aren't you both lucky?"  
  
"We try," Dean said with a shrug.  
  
"So you get to just stroll out of the pit, huh?" the demon-waitress said. "Tell me, what makes you two so special?"  
  
"If you've been doing anything, you'd know that we're still working on that," Bela said, glaring at the demon. "We still don't know what we're dealing with here-"  
  
"Except for the fact that it's above your paygrade and you can't do anything about it," Dean said, looking at the demon with a satisfied smile.  
  
"Excuse me?" she said, looking sharply at Dean. "Mind your tone, boy, or I'll drag you back to Hell myself-"  
  
"Except you can't," Dean retorted with a smile.  
  
"No?" the waitress said, looking pointedly back at him.  
  
"No," Dean confirmed. "See, Flo, if you're not enlightening us, that means you don't know who cut us loose, which means that you need answers just as much as we do."  
  
"Which," Bela continued, looking at the demon with a smile as she continued Dean's point, "means that whatever did this is significantly higher up the demonic hierarchy than you are, which means that they're a lot stronger than you, and therefore almost certainly have something in mind that you don't know about."  
  
"So go ahead," Dean said, picking up the explanation once again as the demon swallowed slightly apprehensively. "Send us back. Just don't come crawling to me when they show up on your front doorstep with some Vaseline and a fire hose."  
  
"I'm going to reach down your throat and rip out your lungs," the demon said, glaring solemnly at him.  
  
In response, Dean leaned over towards the woman, and then lashed out with a couple of right hooks, which the demon facing them merely sat and took; it was a risky move to make, but after his earlier theory had met with a distinctive lack of denial, he felt comfortable taking the chance.  
  
"That's what I thought," Dean said, grinning as he took in her response to his 'attack'; a hostile glare, but with just enough anxiety behind it to make her reluctant to actually do anything about it, coupled with a distinctive lack of anything else. "Let's go, Sam, Bela."  
  
With that, the three of them stood up and walked out of the diner, the demon unable to do anything but sit and watch as they walked away.  
  
It had been a closer call than Dean usually liked, but they'd survived; that was the main thing.  
  
He'd have preferred it if they'd survived and come out of it with new information, but with things the way they were, he'd take what he could get and chalk it up as a win…

* * *

Bela couldn't believe she was going along with this; they were dealing with some unknown entity powerful enough to intimidate three demons into backing down when they didn't know anything about their unknown 'benefactor's' motives or abilities, and after some strange incident involving the glass in her and Dean's motel rooms breaking as the result of some high-pitched shriek, Dean's response was to try and summon it?  
  
Actually, she could believe that of him- considering the circumstances that had led to his deal, Dean wasn't one to give things much thought-; what really surprised her was that _she_ was going along with the plan, which basically consisted of hanging around a warehouse covered in protection symbols with an arsenal including every anti-supernatural weapon they could find- with the exception of the Colt, which Dean had avoided bringing up apart from a brief glare as they spread out the guns on a table-, and try and shoot whatever it was when it showed up.  
  
She'd gone from trying to hunt the creature that had made her deal to buying and selling supernatural items in the hopes of finding something useful because it was safer- to say nothing of more comfortable, and now she was helping Dean and Bobby summon something that scared other demons and nearly killed you if you tried to _look_ at it?  
  
She might be stuck for options, but had she really become this desperate…?  
  
The worst part was that she knew she was.  
  
She'd only just escaped her last deal; if something else had a hold over her now, she was going to cut it off before it could make her do _anything_ against her will.  
  
If only it would actually get here…  
  
"You sure you did the ritual right?" Dean asked as he looked up at Bobby, voicing Bela's own thoughts even if she was grateful he'd done it; Bobby was more likely to take that kind of thing from Dean rather than her.  
  
As it was, Dean's apology had just concluded when the walls of the warehouse started shaking as what sounded like wind blew around the building, the two men arming themselves with shotguns and taking up position at the end of the warehouse opposite the doors while Bela drew her chosen pistol.  
  
"Wishful thinking," Dean said as he glanced over at Bobby, "but maybe it's just the wind."  
  
Bela was saved from having to comment on that statement when the lightbulbs above them suddenly exploded, followed by the doors of the warehouse swinging open and a figure walking through him, his pace calm and casual despite the weapons facing him. Bela briefly noted his somewhat dishevelled appearance- unlike most demons, who always dressed to impress, his top shirt button was undone and his tie hung loosely around his neck-, but the fact that he had odd choice in clothing didn't change what he was. Following Bobby and Dean's cue, Bela attempted to fire at the figure as he approached, casually passing thought multiple devils' traps as though they were nothing, never responding to the shotgun blasts that tore holes in his coat, until he came to a halt as Dean moved over to the table where he had been sitting earlier, his gaze fixed on the new arrival.  
  
"Who are you?" Dean asked.  
  
"I'm the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition," the figure said, its voice a hoarse tone as though the man had been a chain smoker.  
  
"Yeah?" Dean said. "Thanks for that."  
  
With that statement, he lunged towards the figure and plunged a knife into its chest- Bela had noted him express a particular interest in that knife, but he hadn't explained why and she hadn't been able to find the right way to ask-, only for the figure to show no signs that he was bothered by the blade sticking out of his chest, looking nonchalantly down at the blade before reaching up to pull it out.  
  
In a moment of uncharacteristic panic, Bela raised her gun and fired a shot at the figure's head, only for the man to turn to face her as the gun fired, before opening his mouth to reveal the bullet held between his teeth. Bobby, evidently stuck for any better ideas, charged onwards the figure with what looked like an iron bar, only for the figure to grab the bar without turning around before he moved to face Bobby, raising his free hand to touch Bobby's forehead and sending the older man crumpling to the ground.  
  
"Dean Winchester, Bela Talbot," the figure said, looking at them both with a brief nod, clearly unconcerned about Bobby now that he had been dealt with. "We need to talk."  
  
"You… you know us?" Bela said, looking uncertainly at the figure as Dean crouched down to examine Bobby (She only realised how stupid that statement was after she'd said it, but panic could make people do foolish things).  
  
"I do," the figure said, nodding at Bela before he looked at Dean. "Your friend is alive."  
  
"Who are you?" Dean asked, looking back up at the figure, obviously unwilling to just accept the situation facing them.  
  
"Castiel," the figure replied.  
  
"Yeah, I figured that," Dean retorted. "I meant, _what_ are you?"  
  
"I'm an angel of the lord," the now-named Castiel said, looking at them both in a solemn manner.  
  
Bela's eyes widened incredulously.  
  
An _angel_ …  
  
She'd heard a few rumours that they existed, of course- she recalled one time she'd found a box of what were labelled as angel feathers when clearing out some old storehouse-, but the thought that she was facing one…  
  
"Get the hell out of here," Dean said, standing up from his examination of Bobby, glaring at the creature that Bela was just now reminding herself _couldn't_ be an angel as angels didn't exist any more even if they ever had. "There's no such thing."  
  
"This is your problem, Dean," Castiel said, looking solemnly at him. "You have no faith."  
  
As he moved into a position in the centre of the warehouse, Bela briefly tensed for something to happen, but then lightning flashed from outside, revealing…  
  
Bela's jaw dropped.  
  
 _Wings_.  
  
The shadows of two massive, feathered wings spread out from Castiel's shoulders, perfectly fitting the image of angels that had so dominated so many cultures…  
  
 _Oh God_ … Bela thought, torn between screaming in rage at the being in front of her and falling to the ground in prayers of thanks.  
  
She had been saved from Hell by an _angel_ …  
  
"Some angel you are," Dean said, his tone grim as he looked at the man (Bela thought about chipping in, but right now she was content to let Dean ask the questions; as much as she hated to admit it to him directly, _he_ wouldn't have gone to Hell on his own, but _she_ certainly would have, and the last thing she wanted was for the angel to pay too much attention to her and realise she wasn't worth it). "You burned out that poor woman's eyes."  
  
"I warned her not to spy on my true form," Castiel said; to his credit, he actually seemed slightly apologetic about the reminder of what he had done to Pam. "It can be… overwhelming to humans. So can my real voice, but you already knew that."  
  
"You mean the gas station and the motel… That was you talking?" Dean said, Castiel nodding in response. "Buddy, next time, lower the volume."  
  
"That was my mistake," Castiel said, a slightly thoughtful expression on his face as though contemplating Dean's earlier suggestion. "Certain people, special people, can perceive my true visage. I thought you would be one of them. I was wrong."  
  
"And what… 'visage' are you in now, huh?" Dean asked, glancing over the body in the battered trenchcoat. "What, holy tax accountant?"  
  
"This?" Castiel said, looking at his coat with a slight smile. "This is, uh, a Vessel."  
  
"You're _possessing_ someone?" Bela cried, the words slipping out before she could stop herself.  
  
"He's a devout man," Castiel said, apparently ignorant of the full reason for her shock as he looked over at her. "He actually prayed for this."  
  
"Oh," Bela said, instantly regretting her reaction; her instinctive shock at the hint that demons and angels had something in common had overridden her previous plan to stay silent, but now that she'd been told that there wasn't anything to worry about…  
  
"You know," Dean added, "it might have been easier to show up like this the first time instead of all that 'burning bush' crap."  
  
"I had to recuperate in Heaven after my time in the Pit," Castiel explained, before he glanced over at Bela. "My Vessel is durable, but my Grace needed time to heal after protecting your soul while leaving Hell-"  
  
"Hold on; _her_ soul?" Dean said, looking at Castiel sharply. "Why were you protecting _her_ soul specifically?"  
  
"I was only sent into the Pit to retrieve you, Dean; the recovery of Bela Talbot was an… impulsive decision," Castiel explained.  
  
"Wait…" Bela said, her plan to stay silent completely forgotten now as she walked forward to look at Castiel. "You mean… you just… _chose_ to save me? On your own?"  
  
"I did," Castiel said. "I had been temporarily provided with the power to return Dean's soul to his body at a distance so that I could ensure that he would not be recaptured by demons as I attempted to take him back to Earth, but that power was for a single use; I was required to… carry you through Hell myself and return you to your body personally-"  
  
Bela wasn't sure how it happened, but she suddenly found herself with her arms wrapped around Castiel, sobbing in relief as she held on to the angel.  
  
"Thank you…" she said, her voice barely audible through her tears of relief. "Thank you… thank you…"  
  
From his position behind Bela, Dean was treated to a view of Castiel's face at the hug, and he was almost tempted to smile; for a guy who'd just been through Hell and back, he seemed to be at a complete loss as to what to do when a woman started sobbing over him…  
  
Then Bela pulled away from Castiel, her initial sobs under control, and Dean spoke again.  
  
"Look, pal," the eldest surviving Winchester said firmly, moving forward to position himself in front of Bela in a gesture so quick that it almost seemed automatic, "I'm not buying what you're selling even if she is, so who are you really?"  
  
"I told you," Castiel said, frowning in confusion at Dean.  
  
"Right…" Dean said, a bitter tone to his voice as he looked at the angel. "And why would an angel rescue me from Hell, and grab Bela as a bonus prize?"  
  
"Good things do happen, Dean," Castiel said solemnly, looking at them both with was probably meant to be a comforting manner.  
  
"Not in my experience," Dean said, Bela only able to stand silently beside him while fighting the urge to burst into tears at the memory of how the world had taught _her_ that lesson…  
  
"What's the matter?" Castiel said, looking assessingly at them for a moment before inspiration dawned on him. "You don't think you deserve to be saved."  
  
"Why'd you do it?" Dean asked (Bela was going to owe him a great deal for helping with this mess; she was already feeling uncomfortable about the fact that she'd just _hugged_ an angel while sobbing into his shoulder).  
  
"Because God commanded it," Castiel said, looking solemnly at Dean. "We have work for you, Dean; work where I felt that the aid that Bela Talbot could provide would be of great use to you."  
  
Bela had no idea what to say to that.  
  
An _angel_ had saved her from Hell… because he thought that she could help Dean complete God's work?  
  
She might have given up on religion as anything other than a tool years ago, but when an angel saved you from Hell while acting on orders from God, that was _definitely_ cause to think about what you were going to do next…  
  
But what could Dean be needed for that she could help with?  
  
And why would any angel give her this kind of chance in particular?  
  
She was unbelievably grateful, but she just felt like there was something Castiel wasn't telling them…


	4. Begin the Raising

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And on with the Raising of the Witnesses, which will include- among other changes- a _very_ particular addition to the Witness List…

"It _wasn't_ an angel," Dean said firmly, glaring at Sam as he sat at one of Bobby's desks while the older hunter sat at another desk in the next room, each studying a pile of books; Bela having collapsed on a bed in the room upstairs after they had returned from summoning Castiel and remaining surprisingly asleep despite the argument taking place below her.

"Well, then tell me what else it could be," Sam said.

"Look," Dean said, still glaring at his brother, "all I know is I was not… _groped_ by an angel."

"OK, look, Dean, why do you think this… Castiel would lie to you about it?" Sam asked.

"Maybe he's some kind of demon," Dean said, frustration at this repetitive argument obvious. "Demons lie."

"A demon who's immune to salt rounds and devil's traps... and Ruby's knife?" Sam said, looking sceptically at his brother. "Dean, _Lilith_ is scared of that thing!"

"OK," Dean said, looking firmly at his brother. "Putting aside the idea that an angel would think it worthwhile to save _Bela_ from Hell of all people, don't you think that, if angels were real, some hunter somewhere would have seen one... at some point... ever?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "You just did, Dean."

"I'm trying to come up with a theory here, OK?" Dean said, looking at Sam in exasperation. "Work with me."

"Dean, we have a theory," Sam pointed out.

"Yeah, one with a little less fairy dust on it, please," Dean countered.

"OK, look," Sam interjected, "I'm not saying we know for _sure_ , I'm just saying that I think we-"

"Exactly," Dean interrupted. "That's the point; we don't know for sure, so I'm not gonna believe that this thing is a freaking Angel of the Lord because it _says_ so!"

"You two chuckleheads want to keep arguing religion, or do you want to come take a look at this?" Bobby asked, indicating the books laid out before him. After a quick glance confirmed that neither had anything useful to say that the other hadn't heard already, Sam and Dean walked over to stand in front of the older man as he indicated the book he'd been studying, which depicted a man being pulled out of a fiery pit by a winged figure. "I got stacks of lore- Biblical, pre-Biblical, some of it's in damn cuneiform- but it all says an angel can snatch a soul from the pit."

"What else?" Dean asked, rubbing his shoulder as he spoke.

"What else, what?" Bobby said.

"What else can do it?" Dean said.

"Airlift your ass out of the hot box?" Bobby asked with a shrug. "As far as I can tell, nothing."

"Dean, this is good news," Sam said after a moment's silence went by with no reaction from his brother.

"How?" Dean asked.

"Because for once, this isn't just another round of demon crap," Sam explained. "I mean, maybe you were saved by one of the good guys, you know?"

"OK," Dean said, clapping his hands together thoughtfully. "Say it's true. Say there are angels. Then what? There's a God?"

"At this point, Vegas money's on yeah," Bobby said.

"I don't know, guys," Dean said, turning away from Sam and Bobby to awkwardly rub his hand against his head.

"OK, look," Sam said. "I know you're not all choirboy about this stuff, but this is becoming less and less about _faith_ and more and more about _proof_."

"Proof?" Dean repeated, turning back to look at Sam

"Yes," Sam said.

"Proof that there's a God out there that actually gives a crap about me personally?" Dean said, looking indignantly between the other two. "I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it."

"Why not?" Sam asked.

"Because why me?" Dean said, in a manner that suggested he'd been thinking about that issue for a while. "If there is a God out there, why would he give a crap about me?"

"Dean-" Sam began.

"I mean, I've saved some people, OK?" Dean said before Sam could say anything else. "I figured that made up for the stealing and the ditching chicks. But why do I deserve to get saved? I'm just a regular guy… and don't get me _started_ on _Bela_!"

"You know, it sounded like Castiel just decided to save her on his own-" Sam began.

"Yeah, and that's just all kinds of wrong; the woman who made a deal to kill her parents gets out of Hell because an _angel_ thought she was _worth it_?" Dean said, looking indignantly at Sam. "Come on, Sam; even if it's true- and I'm not saying I think it _is_ -, I don't like being singled out at birthday parties, let alone by… y'know, _God_."

"Well, apparently he doesn't care about that," Sam said. "As for Bela…"

His voice trailed off as he thought about that for a moment, before he looked at Dean with a shrug. "OK, I've got nothing there."

" _Exactly_!" Dean said, clapping his hands together. "How do we know-"

"That I didn't set this up myself?" Bela's voice suddenly interjected, her tone grim as she walked down the stairs before fixing Dean with a cold glare. "If I was really behind this, don't you think I would have found a way to get out of Hell a _bit_ sooner than five months after I was sent there?"

"Plus, no reason for her to get you dragged out as well," Bobby said, looking pointedly at Dean for a moment before his gaze shifted back to Bela. "To be blunt, you'd be more likely to just drag yourself out and bail if you had the chance; fact that you've stuck around this long makes it pretty clear you don't know what brought you back."

"Thank you," Bela said after a moment's pause, clearly stuck for what else she could say to such a statement as she glared indignantly at Bobby, before turning to look at Dean. "For the record, I heard some of your argument-"

"Were you even asleep in the first place?" Dean asked.

"It would be hard to get _any_ sleep with the amount of noise you were making down here," Bela retorted, before she took a breath and continued. "Anyway, as I said, I heard your scepticism, and I can confirm that angels _are_ real; I once sold a box of angel feathers that I recovered from an old storage house."

"What?" Sam said, looking at her incredulously. "Someone had a _box_ of _angel feathers_?"

"Before anyone says anything, the box's owners had died a _long_ time ago; it was in an old storage unit that I bought out a few years ago when the rent expired," Bela explained, directing a pointed stare at Sam. "It belonged to some old society that died out in the fifties; I tried to do some background research, but it looks like most of their records were lost when they were destroyed…"

"OK, so some old guys knew about angels and had a bit of a plucking season a few decades ago; so what?" Dean said, glaring at Bela. "Doesn't mean this guy's telling the truth."

"You want to know more?" Bobby said, picking up a pile of books and moving them in front of Dean. "Start reading."

* * *

After a few hours of research as Dean and Bela perused the collection while Sam headed off on a snack run had resulted in a lack of anything to confirm Castiel's story, Bobby took Dean with him to check on one of his hunting contacts, leaving Sam and Bela to continue their research. They'd found a few potentially interesting items on angelic script, but so far there was nothing they could use to determine whether Castiel had been telling the truth- lack of evidence to the contrary wasn't evidence- or what his motives were.  
  
Sam's meeting with Ruby had left him with a few other questions about whatever was happening here, considering her certainty that the angels would be against her just because she was a demon; from what she'd told them about how demons were created during that case involving those witches, Sam would have thought that Castiel was proof that angels wouldn't see things as being that black-and-white…  
  
"So," Sam said, looking awkwardly at Bela after a period of awkward silence, "do you-?"  
  
"All I remember of Hell is a few flashes that are more than enough to assure me that I don't _want_ to know more," Bela said, glaring at the younger Winchester. "I know that you're only here to watch me, so do us both a favour and shut up."  
  
"Fine," Sam said, shrugging as he turned back to his book out of a lack of anything else to do.  
  
He knew that Bela had stolen the Colt and tried to kill them, but if an angel saw something in her that was worth saving… didn't they have the right to give her the benefit of the doubt? Dean was always saying that they didn't judge humans- that time they'd let themselves get arrested just to stop the ghost in the prison was a prime example of that-, so was it fair of them to judge Bela when an angel of the Lord had judged her worthy of forgiveness?  
  
God, was this what they'd come to? So screwed up that they'd finally had something good happen to them and automatically started questioning it for the loophole?  
  
He finally had proof that there was something else on the supernatural side of the coin, something that had some interest in helping them rather than killing them, and now he was stuck dealing with the woman who'd betrayed them on the one hand and been released by an angel on the other?  
  
"Back in a bit," he said, getting up and walking off to Bobby's bathroom with a frustrated sigh; he might have doubts about leaving Bela completely alone, but he'd been here enough times that he knew that Bela wouldn't be able to get out of the house without him hearing it from here. Once he'd attended to his immediate business, Sam splashed his face with cold water, trying to wake himself up- he'd been on the go for a while now without any top-ups from Ruby; he was starting to get tired-, turned around-  
  
"Hi, Sam," Special Agent Victor Henriksen said, standing nonchalantly at the bathroom door, staring at Sam with the grim smirk that had often been on his face when he was certain he had Sam and Dean right where he wanted them and that they were just deranged lunatics; the only obvious sign that something had changed was the fact that Henriksen's top two shirt buttons were undone and his tie was hanging loose, as opposed to the more professional appearance the man had always assumed in life. "Been a while."  
  
"Henriksen?" Sam said, his mindflashing over their last few encounters with this man for anything that might explain this; he'd shown up too quietly to be human, and while ghosts might be able to move from their remains, Henriksen was too new to be this coherent and this distant from his body this quickly. "Are you- did you-?"  
  
"I didn't survive, if that's what you're asking," Henriksen said, confirming Sam's initial thoughts even without his sudden 'glitch'; he'd never gone back to the place where he and Dean had endured the demon siege, but a part of him had hoped that Henriksen and the others had managed to get out before Lilith showed up…  
  
"I'm sorry," Sam said, hoping that the apology would be enough.  
  
"I know you are," Henriksen said, nodding solemnly at him.  
  
"Look, if we'd known Lilith was coming-" Sam began.  
  
"You wouldn't have left half a dozen innocent people in that police station to die in your place," Henriksen said, his expression cold as he glared at Sam. "You did this to me. It was your fault. She was after you, and I paid the price. You left us there to die!"  
  
Before Sam could react, Henriksen grabbed him and threw him against the wall, an act of force that should have been impossible for a ghost as 'young' as Henriksen and with this little experience of the supernatural. Stuck for anything else to do, Sam grabbed a nearby iron bar- Bobby always made sure there was something that could be useful as a weapon in every room of the house- and swung it at Henriksen as he reached out to grab Sam again, Sam only having time to briefly note a strange symbol on Henriksen's outstretched hand before he vanished once again.  
  
Hurrying out of the bathroom, Sam was about to call to Bela, but the call died in his throat before it could emerge when he saw the thief sitting on the ground, back to the wall, staring in sheer terror at a man standing over her dressed in a smart-looking suit that obviously cost more than anything Sam or Dean would use for a job.  
  
"So, Abby," the man said, a malevolent edge to his voice as he glared at Bela, "you really thought that would work?"  
  
"N-no-!" Bela said, her voice trembling as she looked at the man before her in evident horror.  
  
"Don't lie to me, Abby," the man said, his voice sounding like he was actually trying to be seductive in a manner that Sam could only think of as perverse. "You thought you could get away from your obligations to your father?"  
  
 _Father_? Sam thought to himself, staring at the man in shock.  
  
Now that it had been brought up, he could see the resemblance between the man and the thief- similar hair colour, something about the face-, but the man's words didn't fit what Dean had told him about Bela's confession regarding her parents' deaths; she might have referred to them as good people, but this guy sounded more like a creep than anything…  
  
Then the ghost began to advance towards the obviously-terrified Bela, and questions were forgotten in favour of the more immediate threat. Still holding the iron bar, he swung it at the spirit of Bela's father, the figure turning to look at him just before Sam's swing made it vanish.  
  
"Bela?" Sam said, crouching down to look at the shaken thief, his earlier confusion about her forgotten in the face of her terror. "Was that-?"  
  
"My father?" Bela interjected, looking at him with a new intensity that was only slightly let down by the obvious tears in her eyes. "Yes, it was, and this isn't-"  
  
"What happened to 'they were lovely people'?" Sam said, looking indignantly at Bela as he recalled what Dean had told him about his last face-to-face encounter with this woman when she'd pretty much admitted to killing her own parents like it was nothing. "That-"  
  
" _Later_ ," Bela said, with a glare that made it obvious Sam would be lucky if they ever actually got to 'later' but also made it apparent that this wasn't the time to press for that kind of information.  
  
Quite frankly, Sam was relieved when his cellphone started to ring at that moment; at least it gave them something else to focus on right now.  
  
" _Sammy_ ," Dean's voice said on the other end, " _we've got a problem; Bobby's contact's dead, and so are pretty much every other hunter in the immediate state radius_."  
  
"What?" Sam said, his mind immediately flashing back to recent events. "What did it?"  
  
" _Ghosts_ ," Dean said. " _Still working on why, but we're talking some seriously bad shit here; EMF around the body's off the charts, body's in the kind of shape I've never seen a ghost leave_ -"  
  
"Henriksen," Sam said.  
  
" _What_?" Dean said, sounding confused.  
  
"I just had Henriksen show up in Bobby's bathroom accusing us of letting him die, and Bela had a… well, she had a family reunion," Sam said grimly.  
  
" _Someone sent these things after Bela_?" Dean said, clearly surprised.  
  
"Yeah, we can analyse the implications of that later; right now, think we could work out what's going on here?" Sam asked (He'd thought for a moment about mentioning what the ghost had said, but decided against it; Bela might have been a bitch, but if an angel thought it was worthwhile bringing her back to Earth Sam wasn't going to start airing her dirty laundry until he had to).  
  
" _Bobby and I will be there soon; in the meantime- hold on_ ," Dean said, the conversation briefly becoming more distant before Dean spoke again. " _Bobby told me to tell you two to get to the basement with anything you can grab; he's set up a panic room down there_."  
  
"A panic room?" Sam said in surprise.  
  
" _He had some time on his hands recently; what matters is you need to grab what you can and get down there before something else happens_ ," Dean said grimly. " _We'll be there soon, but I'd feel better if you were safe… and, right now, Bela's apparently involved in all this, so she goes down too_."  
  
"Right," Sam said, terminating the call and looking at Bela. "Grab what you can and get going; there's a panic room downstairs."  
  
To her credit, Bela didn't question the odd news, but simply nodded in acknowledgement and joined Sam in grabbing some of Bobby's books before they headed for the stairs, each one holding an iron bar and a rock-salt-loaded shotgun in preparation until they reached the room. Walking into the room, Sam smiled in relief at the sight of the interior; iron walls with various protective symbols on it, including a devil's trap in an air vent in the roof.  
  
"Nice," Sam said, grinning at the surrounding room before he looked back at his current associate, his smile faltering at the cold stare on Bela's face as she placed their collection of books on a table in the room; evidently she wasn't interested in talking about the ghost that had attacked her earlier, and Sam wasn't exactly in a position to convince her to talk.  
  
He'd been on so many hunts, and he'd enjoyed his time living a normal life at Stanford, but he wasn't used to being stuck in a situation where he couldn't even comfortably _talk_ with someone else…


	5. Putting Witnesses to Rest

After another awkward couple of hours had passed, during which Sam's attempts to research what might be responsible for the unusual ghost attacks had met with little real results- he just didn't know what to look for beyond 'ghosts acting weird', even if the room's weapons stockpile had also given him the chance to re-load his rock salt ammunition- and Bela's efforts to help had only helped him eliminate certain books more quickly than if he'd been on his own, the door of the panic room opened and Dean and Bobby walked into the room, a haunted look in both their eyes.

"You OK?" Sam asked, standing up to look at his brother and his friend.

"Ran into Meg upstairs- the girl, not the demon- and Bobby saw a couple of little girls, but that's not important right now," Dean said, looking grimly at them.

"Meg?" Sam said, his thoughts flashing back to the time he'd been possessed by the demon in question as she'd tried to provoke Dean into killing him…

"Once again, the host, not the demon; going on about how we failed to save her, how her sister killed herself when Meg was found dead, things like that…" Dean said with a shrug before looking over at Bobby. "You're sure this place is safe?"

"Solid iron coated in salt; one hundred percent ghost-proof," Bobby said, indicating the various anti-demon sigils on the walls with a brief wave of his hand. "Had a weekend off and figured this was the best way to use it."

"Ah," Sam said with a nod.

He briefly wondered if Bobby had made this before or after Dean's deal came through, but quickly concluded that it didn't matter; even if it had been around before their last confrontation with Lilith, the only way it would have saved Dean is if they'd included hellhound defences in the design and kept him in it until they found some other way to break the deal, which wasn't exactly practical no matter how Sam looked at it.

"Point is, we're all safe," Dean said, briefly glancing over at Bela before he looked back at Sam. "Did Meg have a tattoo on her wrist?"

"No…." Sam said, briefly recalling something he'd seen on Hendriksen's hand during the fight in the bathroom. "Hendriksen had something too."

"Fits the pattern, anyway," Dean said grimly. "They're all people we couldn't save…"

As Dean glanced over at Bela, Sam wondered what he was thinking about, but decided not to say anything; Bela might have killed the ghost that attacked her rather than just failing to save him, but what Sam had heard suggested that she hadn't exactly been unprovoked in going that far…

"You both saw a mark?" Bobby said, looking pointedly at them. "What did it look like?"

Reaching over to a nearby pad of paper, Sam quickly drew out a sketch that he thought fit the pattern he had seen so briefly on the FBI agent's hand, finally coming up with something that he thought looked accurate.

"I may have seen this before…" Bobby said, his tone grim as he walked over to the pile of assembled books and began to search through them.

"See," Dean said, looking over at Sam, "this is why I can't get behind God."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"If he doesn't exist, fine," Dean said, looking between the other three as he spoke. "Bad crap happens to good people; that's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason, just random, horrible, evil… I get it, OK, I can roll with that. But if he is out there, what's wrong with him? Where the hell is he while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does he live with himself? You know, why doesn't he help?"

"I ain't touching that one with a ten-foot pole," Bobby said after an awkward moment of silence.

"Yeah," Dean said, once again registering and trying not to think about the expression on Bela's face at his last words, as though he'd just kicked her when she was down…

"Found it," Bobby said, looking up from his book.

"The symbol on the ghosts?" Bela asked, looking anxiously at the older man.

"Mark of the Witness," Bobby said, turning the book around to show the full symbol to them, on the edge of a page with various other symbols- one of which looked like an anti-possession tattoo- and varius ancient writing that even Bela couldn't identify off the top of her head.

"Witness?" Sam repeated. "Witness to what?"

"The unnatural," Bobby explained. "None of them died what you'd call ordinary deaths. See, these ghosts, they were _forced_ to rise. They woke up in agony, they were like rabid dogs. It ain't their fault. Someone rose them... on purpose."

"Who?" Sam asked.

"Do I look like I know?" Bobby asked, before he turned back to the book. "But whoever it was used a spell so powerful it left a mark, a brand on their souls. Whoever did this had big plans. It's called 'the rising of the witnesses'. It figures into an ancient prophecy."

"Oh no…" Bela said, her eyes widening as she looked at Bobby in horror. "Do you mean… you're talking about Revelations, aren't you?"

"Yep," Bobby confirmed grimly.

"Hold on; _Revelations_?" Sam said, looking at Bela and Bobby in shock. "But… hold on, doesn't that talk about-?"

"The Apocalypse?" Bobby finished for Sam. "Precisely."

"Apocalypse?" Dean said, looking at Bobby as though waiting for him to admit to a joke. "The apocalypse, apocalypse? The four horsemen, pestilence, $5-a-gallon-of-gas apocalypse?"

"That's the one," Bobby confirmed. "The rise of the witnesses is a… a mile marker."

"You mean… when it happens, the Apocalypse is coming?" Bela asked, looking apprehensively at the older man.

"Bingo," Bobby said grimly.

"OK, so, what do we do now?" Sam asked.

"Is there any way to put them to rest?" Bela asked before Dean could say anything.

"Aside from hiding out in here until Judgement Day in the hopes that they'll give up and go home," Dean said grimly.

"Well…" Bobby said, thoughtfully indicating the book before him as he turned the page, "there's a spell here to send the witnesses back to rest…"

"But you can't guarantee that it will work, correct?" Bela asked, looking pointedly at the older man.

"If I translated it correctly, I think I got everything we need here at the house," Bobby said, not responding to Bela's comment.

"Any chance you got everything we need here in this room?" Dean asked.

"So you thought our luck was gonna start now all of a sudden?" Bobby asked sceptically as he stood up and walked over to the weapons rack. "Spell's got to be cast over an open fire."

"In other words, we need to go back to the library," Bela said, looking grimly at Bobby, clearly recalling the fireplace in the room in question. " _This_ is why I tried to stay out of hunts…"

"Yeah, and look where that got you; you're here now, so just try and stay somewhere you won't get in the way, OK?" Dean said, picking up the salt-filled shotgun. "I'm not exactly dancing about needing to leave the ghost-proof panic room either, but we can't hide out here forever; either we stop it now, or we're screwed."

Bela glared at Dean in frustration, but the lack of response was enough for them to confirm that she didn't have anything useful to offer as an alternative solution to their current predicament. Stuck for options, she picked up another salt-loaded shotgun and armed it, Sam and Bobby doing the same.

"Cover each other," Bobby said, looking grimly at the two brothers and Bela as he handed the book to Bela, leaving the others to carry their respective weapons. "And aim careful. Don't run out of ammo until I'm done, or they'll shred you. Ready?"

"As ready as we'll ever be," Bela said grimly.

With those words, Bobby opened the door and the four of them walked out of the room, managing to make it along the corridor in the basement before they found themselves faced by an overweight man- most likely a ghost in the current situation- with curly hair, sitting on the stairs with a bitter expression.

"Hey, Dean," the ghost said, looking at the elder Winchester with a mocking smile. "Remember me?"

It didn't take Sam long to remember the man they were looking at; it had been almost two years since they'd seen Ronald Resnick get shot during that mess with the shapeshifter robbing banks, but that kind of thing wasn't something you easily forgot.

"Ronald, huh?" Dean said, smiling grimly at him. "With the laser eyes? I wish I could say it's good to see you."

"I am dead because of you," Ronald said, standing up as he glared at them. "You were supposed to help me!"

Further words were cut off when Bobby and Bela shot at the ghost virtually simultaneously, dispersing him into nothing before he could say any more.

"Less talking, more _shooting_ ," Bela said, glaring at Dean. "You can't _reason_ with these things, remember?"

Dean returned Bela's glare with one of his one, but nevertheless continued walking up the stairs towards the upper levels of the house, immediately heading for the living room. As Sam set up a salt circle around the fire, Dean lit the fire, leaving Bobby to study the book.

"Upstairs, linen closet," the elder man said, looking at Bela as he searched through his desk. "Red hex box; it'll be heavy."

"Me?" Bela said in surprise.

"Sam'll go with you if you're worried about safety; just figured you'd have a better idea what to look for," Bobby said briefly. "Go."

"Got it," Sam said, turning to shoot at two ghost girls as they appeared on the outskirts of the circle before he ran up the stairs.

"Once you're done with that, go to the kitchen; cutlery drawer's got a false bottom," Bobby called after them. "Get hemlock, opium and wormwood; need 'em all."

"Understood," Bela called back to him, tightening her grip on her own weapon as she and Sam ran over the circle, initially heading upstairs to the linen closet before the same figure Sam had seen earlier appeared in front of them.

"Now, now, Abby," the ghost of Bela's father said, his expression mocking as he looked at her, "you shouldn't go blaming others for your-"

"SHUT UP!" Bela yelled, firing the shotgun at the ghost, her expression becoming colder than Sam had ever seen as she walked to the linen closet-

"You know what really pisses me off, Sam?" another voice said from the stairs behind him, prompting Sam to turn around and find himself looking at a woman he wouldn't have recognised as Meg Masters if Dean hadn't told him she was here, her hair significantly darker and her clothing tamed and dirtier than what the demon had worn when it was using her.

"You saw how I suffered for months," Meg continued, shifting position to stand behind Sam as his first attempt to shoot her failed. "I thought you must have learned something. I thought I died for something."

"Meg-" Sam began to protest.

"But what you're doing with that demon, Ruby..." Meg said, glaring at him with a faint gleam of tears. "How many innocent bodies has Ruby burned through for kicks? How many girls just like me? And you don't send _her_ back to Hell? You're a monster!"

Sam wasn't in the mood to defend his actions- Ruby's first body had only died because Lilith hi-jacked it, he'd double-checked that her second host was fine after leaving it, and the current one _was_ officially brain-dead before Ruby started using it-, so he just fired the shotgun and watched as Meg vanished, shortly before Bela ran out to join him, clutching the curse-box in her hands. Nodding briefly at her, Sam hurried downstairs and ran for the kitchen, Bela taking up a defensive position beside him with the box under her arm as he rapidly searched for the drawer Bobby had mentioned. He thought he heard Hendriksen's voice at one point, but the sound of Bela's shotgun being fired obscured the former FBI agent's voice before he could even turn to respond, leaving him to grab what he could and follow the thief back to the main room, ignoring his desire to look around.

"You two OK?" Dean asked, looking grimly at them as they joined him and Bobby in the salt circle.

"We'll survive," Sam said, as he handed the objects over to Bobby. "What now?"

"Just keep 'em back while I do this," Bobby said, turning back to the fire as the overweight ghost reappeared on the other side of the desk.

"Ronald," Dean said, looking grimly at the ghost even as he continued his work. "Hey, come on, man, I thought we were pals."

"That's when I was breathing," Ronald said. "Now I'm gonna eat you alive."

"Well, come on," Dean said, slipping a new load of ammunition into the gun, "I'm not a cheeseburger."

Even as Dean aimed his gun, Ronald vanished, leaving Bobby to begin chanting the ritual as the others kept their guns raised and ready, studying the rest of the room. Windows blew open and the wind began to displace the salt line they'd established, but the Winchesters and Bela remained on the alert, the guns firing as Meg, Henriksen, the two girls, Ronald, and Bela's father reappeared around them, the ghosts being dispersed by the salted shotgun blasts before they could say anything more. With one of them always ready to fire while the other two reloaded their weapons, they were able to effectively hold back the attacking ghosts until Bobby had finished his ritual, walking away from the desk and throwing the contents of the bowl he'd been using into the fire. The fire turned blue as it blared even brighter than before, and then the ghosts vanished, leaving the four humans looking anxiously around themselves for a few moments until they finally lowered their guns, satisfied that no more ghosts were going to appear.

"Well," Bobby said, looking at the others with a slight smile. "Guess that's that."

"For the moment…" Bela muttered, glancing grimly over at Dean and Sam in a manner that made it clear she shared their opinion.

This attack had been dangerous, but anything powerful enough to summon these witnesses was unlikely to be put off by a single failure; whatever had caused this mess, it was almost certainly far from over.

* * *

Later that night, as Dean lay on the floor in Bobby's living room, he wasn't sure what surprised him more; the sight of Castiel standing by the window when he glanced in that direction, or the fact that Bela was standing by the door. Stuck for anything else to do, he walked over to join the thief as they headed into the kitchen to talk with the being that had pulled them out of Hell.  
  
"Excellent job with the Witnesses," Castiel said.  
  
"You knew about that?" Bela asked.  
  
"I was… made aware," Castiel replied, not even having the deceny to change his expression to reflect his words.  
  
"Well, thanks a lot for the angelic assistance," Dean said, glaring at the angel. "You know, I nearly got _battered_ by the ghost of a pissed-off ex-meatsuit."  
  
"But you survived," Castiel said.  
  
"I thought angels were supposed to be guardians," Dean said, still glaring at Castiel as he stared neutrally back at Dean. "Fluffy wings, halos… you know, Michael Landon. Not dicks."  
  
"Dean…" Bela said, looking anxiously between the hunter and the angel, once again lost for words in the face of the being who had saved her from Hell.  
  
"Read the Bible," Castiel said, staring neutrally at Dean. "Angels are warriors of God. I'm a soldier."  
  
"Then where _were_ you?" Bela asked, her fear pushed aside as she looked at him in frustration. "We needed _help_ here…"  
  
In a way, Dean could understand why she was so upset; they'd been important enough to this guy to be rescued from Hell, but he couldn't be bothered sticking around to make sure they stayed that way?  
  
"I'm not here to perch on your shoulder," Castiel said, a slight edge to his voice. "We had larger concerns."  
  
"Concerns?" Dean repeated, his voice lowering as he glared at Castiel. "There were people getting torn to shreds down here! And, by the way, while all this is going on, where the hell is your boss, huh, if there is a God?"  
  
"There's a God," Castiel confirmed.  
  
"I'm not convinced," Dean said firmly. "'Cause if there's a God, what the hell is he waiting for, huh? Genocide? Monsters roaming the earth? The freaking _apocalypse_? At what point does he lift a damn finger and help the poor bastards that are stuck down here?"  
  
"The Lord works-" Castiel began.  
  
" _Don't_ ," Bela said, glaring at the angel, his imminent words allowing her to forget her usual desire to avoid antagonising the angel. "If you _dare_ to say that…"  
  
She'd spoken with so many religious figures in the immediate aftermath of her parents' deaths and the revelation of her role in their demise, and she'd heard that line too often to accept it again, even from someone who was clearly in a better position to know the truth than any of them.  
  
God might work in mysterious ways, but after everything that she'd been through, was it too much to ask for a straight answer?  
  
"So," Dean said, looking awkwardly at the angel after a moment of silence had gone by, realising that there was still one key issue that had to be settled now. "Bobby was right… about the witnesses? This is some kind of a… sign of the apocalypse?"  
  
"That's why we're here," Castiel said, turning to face Dean. "Big things are afoot."  
  
"Do we want to know what kind of things?" Bela asked.  
  
"I sincerely doubt it, but you need to know," Castiel said grimly. "The rising of the witnesses is one of the sixty-six seals."  
  
"The what?" Bela asked.  
  
"I'm guessing that's not a show at Seaworld," Dean said.  
  
"Those seals are being broken by Lilith," Castiel continued.  
  
"Lilith?" Bela said, her eyes widening in horror at the demon responsible for their deals.  
  
"She did the spell," Dean concluded. "She rose the Witnesses."  
  
"And not just here," Castiel said. "Twenty other hunters are dead."  
  
"Of course," Dean said in understanding. "She picked victims that the hunters couldn't save so that they would barrel right after us."  
  
"Lilith has a certain sense of humour," Castiel said grimly.  
  
"But why did she come after me?" Bela asked. "I'm not a hunter-"  
  
"You are affiliated with the supernatural world and have ties to my garrison and the Winchesters," Castiel explained as he looked back at the thief. "Even if you have taken no action against her personally so far, that is enough for Lilith now."  
  
"Right…" Bela said, looking at the angel for a moment before she continued; getting upset about him bringing her into this conflict wasn't going to accomplish anything when the alternative would have been for her to stay in Hell. "So… if we sent the witnesses back to rest…"  
  
"It doesn't matter," Castiel said. "The seal was broken."  
  
"Why break the seal anyway?" Dean asked.  
  
"Think of the seals as locks on a door," Castiel continued.  
  
"OK," Dean said, exchanging anxious glances with Bela; even without knowing the rest of whatever the angel was about to tell them, anything that demons wanted unlocked couldn't be good. "Last one opens, and…?"  
  
"Lucifer walks free," Castiel finished, getting up from his position leaning against the counter to stare at them.  
  
" _Lucifer_?" Bela repeated, staring at the angel in shock. "As in… you're saying that they're trying to release the _Devil_?"  
  
"Hold on; I thought Lucifer was just a story at demon Sunday school…" Dean began.  
  
"Three days ago, you thought there was no such thing as me," Castiel pointed out. "Why do you think we're here walking among you now for the first time in two thousand years?"  
  
"To stop Lucifer," Dean said, his voice a low whisper as he looked at Castiel.  
  
"That's why we've arrived," Castiel said.  
  
"Well… bang-up job so far," Dean said, looking at the angel with a new sense of bitterness. "Stellar work with the witnesses. That's nice."  
  
"We tried," Castiel said. "There are other battles, other seals. Some we'll win, some we'll lose. This one we lost."  
  
For a moment, Bela thought that Castiel was looking specifically at her during that speech, but his expression shifted before she could confirm it, and his attention was focused on Dean once again, leaving her unable to confirm it as he moved to stand in front of Dean. "Our numbers are not unlimited. Six of my brothers died in the field this week. You think the armies of Heaven should just follow you around? There's a bigger picture here. You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in."  
  
"No…" Bela whispered, her eyes widening in horror before Castiel vanished, leaving the two of them looking at each other.  
  
Bela wasn't sure what scared her most; the thought of the Devil himself being released on to the world, or the thought that the angel that had rescued her from the Pit would be so willing to throw her back into it if she didn't help…  
  
She wasn't even sure what she could do to help Dean in whatever mission God had given him before she'd known what it was; how could she stop the Apocalypse?  
  
Things had been so much simpler when all she'd had to worry about was herself…


	6. Back to the Beginning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A jump forward of a few days, followed by a _very_ significant jump in another direction…

As she lay down in her bed, Bela sighed in relief at the sensation; after so long tolerating nothing more comfortable than the couch in Bobby Singer's house- he had a guest room set up, but the Winchester brothers naturally got priority, their only concession being to give her the couch rather than a floor-, it was a relief to be back on a bed that was actually _hers_ …

With the initial questions of her and Dean's resurrection dealt with, along with the aftermath of the Raising resolved, Bela had turned her attention to getting her life back together while Dean and Sam tried to assist Bobby in working out whatever they could do next (She might have been 'assigned' to help Dean, but that didn't mean she was going to start living like him).

Fortunately, she'd had most of her belongings put into storage and paid for a year's lease on a storage box before she'd gone off to try and kill Sam, reasoning that she might be able to find what she was looking for down in Hell if she couldn't find an 'escape clause' on Earth. With access to some identification papers she'd hidden in a public locker, it hadn't taken long for her to get around her 'Missing' status and confirm that she had the right to access the box (The advantage of hellhounds, she supposed; her body must have been too badly injured for anyone to identify her… and she was _not_ going to think about what that meant beyond this).

Of course, she'd had to assume a few new aliases once she'd regained her possessions- demons might not exactly be up-to-date with modern technology in her experience, but she couldn't make it too easy for her to be found-, but she'd already arranged for the relevant documents to be set up long before her deal was close to expiring; even if the demons were looking for her, they'd probably be looking for newly-formed identities rather than these more established ones. With new names to sign for things with that the demons wouldn't suspect- although she was going to keep Bela for conversations with the right people; it might be risky, but she felt _comfortable_ with that name-, she was restored to legal life and ready to pick up where she left off…

The only problem was that, now that she had access to her old connections and money, she had no idea what she was going to do.

She knew that she was 'supposed' to help Dean do… whatever he was meant to do to stop the Apocalypse… but Castiel couldn't honestly expect her to put her entire life on hold just to help them out, could he? She was less willing to be dismissive of Dean and Sam's attitude towards life than she had been- forming connections and making money hadn't helped her get out of her deal, but Dean had to have done _something_ to prompt God to send Castiel into Hell to rescue him, even if the angel had given her a chance on his own-, but at the same time she wasn't sure what she was meant to do with herself. Judging by Lilith sending… that spirit… after her, she wasn't going to be able to get away from the supernatural world even if she wanted to, but she just couldn't see herself as a regular hunter; she was too attached to her creature comforts.

Even if it would have been easy for her to return to her old methods- the contacts were still there, after all-, it hadn't taken her long to identify the flaw in that plan; anything that increased her chances of returning to Hell was to be unquestionably avoided at all costs.

Her memories of Hell were still lost to her, and she had started to identify a few frustrating blanks in her memory prior to going to Hell- she had a vague recollection of having given the Colt to somebody, but she couldn't place who-, but what she could remember was enough to leave her certain that she had no interest in going back there, which meant that she had to find another way to make a living.

It was ironic, really; getting out of Hell was meant to be impossible, but it was what she was to do with herself now that she was out that was really giving her trouble now…

As she lay on her bed, staring up at her ceiling while lost in thought, she felt a sudden strange _tug_ in her chest…

* * *

Dean had no idea what had just happened. One minute he was experiencing what appeared to be flashes of his time in Hell- and _God_ , if those were flashes he _definitely_ didn't want to remember anything more-, then he woke up to find Castiel sitting over him saying something about how he had to stop it (Without specifying what 'it' was), and now he was lying on something that was simultaneously harder and softer than the bed he'd been in earlier…  
  
Then his hand fell on something that he had no trouble identifying by touch, and his eyes shot open as he found himself looking into Bela Talbot's eyes as she stared back at him in shock, the two of them lying on top of a bench in the middle of a street, Dean fully dressed in his usual attire while Bela was wearing a short-sleeved top- sleeves only just covering the handprint on her shoulder- and dark trousers. Glancing around, the sight of a police officer approaching the bench was more than enough incentive for the two to get up.  
  
"What… just happened?" Bela asked, keeping her voice low as the police officer walked past them, a slight smile on his face that she wasn't going to think about more than she had to; the implications of their original position were _more_ than enough for her brain right now…  
  
"Not sure," Dean said, pulling out his cell and glancing at it, rolling his eyes at the lack of signal before he looked back at Bela. "Crashed on the bed one moment, and then our angelic 'Get-Out-of-Hell' card shows up, tells me I have to stop something, and…"  
  
He shrugged. "Here I am."  
  
"And 'here' is?" Bela asked.  
  
"No idea," Dean said, glancing around before he indicated a diner across the road. "Shall we try here?"  
  
Evidently lacking for ideas of her own, Bela nodded and followed Dean into the diner, Dean sitting down next to a man at the counter wearing a blue jacket over a blue checked shirt.  
  
"Hey," Dean said, smiling at the man as Bela sat down on the other side of him. "Where are we?"  
  
"Jay Bird's Diner," the man replied.  
  
"Yeah, thanks," Dean said, momentarily awkward before deciding to bite the bullet and ask the most crucial question. "I mean, uh... city and state."  
  
"Lawrence, Kansas," the man said, a slight smile on his face at the idea of anyone needing that kind of reminder.  
  
 _Lawrence_ …  
  
Dean wasn't even aware that he'd spoken as he took in this particular piece of information, momentarily unaware of Bela's continued presence alongside him as he processed that news.  
  
It had been so long since they'd lived here, but Lawrence was the last place that he'd ever considered a home; ever since, every place he'd stayed in, whether a hotel or a house, was just somewhere they'd been staying to deal with the current hunt.  
  
"Hey," the man said, looking at him in concern. "You OK, buddy?"  
  
"Yeah," Dean said, looking at Bela with a slight smile before he rubbed his fingers over the bridge of his nose. "Rough night."  
  
"Ah," the man said, raising a hand and calling out. "Hey, uh, coffee here, Reg."  
  
"OK, coming right up," the man who was apparently Reg said from the other end of the counter.  
  
"Can you tell me where I can get reception on this thing?" Dean asked, pulling his cellphone from his pocket; there'd been nothing outside, but he might as well try asking a local for tips…  
  
"The USS _Enterprise_?" the man said, looking sceptically at the phone. Exchanging uncertain glances with Bela- what kind of guy didn't recognise a cellphone?-, Dean turned around to find himself looking at a man carrying a pot of coffee who was presumably Reg, his brain quickly registering Reg's unusual clothing; there was something very distinctly Sonny Bono about that furry vest over a shirt that loud…  
  
"Hey," he said, taking a sip of the offered drink, "you know Sonny and Cher broke up, right?"  
  
"Sonny and Cher broke up?" the man sitting beside him said, looking at Dean in confusion.  
  
Looking around the diner to avoid answering that question, the fact that Bela was clearly taken aback by the obvious seventies theme around them was the only thing that stopped Dean freaking out more than he already was; the sight of his new associate holding a clearly new newspaper talking about Nixon accepting a resignation and the date of April 30 1973 on top was disturbing, but at least Bela gave him someone else who was actually thrown by all this rather than him wondering if he'd had some kind of breakdown after getting out of Hell (They might have both been through the same thing, but they wouldn't react the _exact_ same way…).  
  
"Hey, Winchester," an unfamiliar voice said as another man walked into the diner, Dean and the other man looking around before the speaker walked up to the other guy.  
  
"Son of a bitch," the new arrival said, shaking the other man's hand. "How you doing, corporal?"  
  
"Hey, Mr D.," the first man replied.  
  
"I heard you were back," the man who was apparently 'Mr D'. said, grinning warmly at him.  
  
"Yeah, a little while now," the first man said.  
  
"Good to have you home, John," Mr D. said, Dean's eyes widening and the man's following words barely registering to him as he looked at the man beside him once again.  
  
He was younger than Dean had ever seen him, clean-shaven and relaxed, untainted by the horrors of the war he'd been waging for as long as Dean could remember and the pain of losing the wife he'd always loved regardless of the difficulties they'd experienced in the past, but it was unquestionably his father sitting before him.  
  
He barely registered the other man making some brief comment about John saying hello to the 'old man'- John's step-father, Dean recalled; his biological grandfather vanished when John was a kid, and virtually every other relative on both sides of the family was dead before Dean was born-; all that mattered right now was that his _father_ was _there_ …  
  
"Do we know each other?" his father- _John Winchester_ , Dean reminded himself; slipping up in a situation like this wouldn't just be awkward, it could be disastrous- said, looking curiously at Dean.  
  
"I guess not," Dean said, reaching over under the counter to place a hand on Bela's leg as his father- his _father_ \- got up to walk away; until he knew what was going on, he couldn't let Bela try to go after John…  
  
"Was that-?" Bela said, her voice practically in his ear as she leaned over to speak to him.  
  
"Yeah, that's my dad at my age; can we just… _go_?" Dean said, indicating the door and hoping that John was far enough away for them not to run into him immediately. Getting up from their seats, Dean hurried after his apparent future father, Bela close behind him, only to walk around a corner and find Castiel standing in front of them both.  
  
"What is this?" Dean asked; he might be keeping himself under control to stop himself freaking out too much in Bela's presence, but there was only so much a guy could take…  
  
"What does it look like?" Castiel replied, his tone as frustrating neutral as it always was.  
  
"You… this is _real_?" Bela said, looking incredulously at her surroundings before looking back at Castiel.  
  
"Very," Castiel said.  
  
"OK, so what?" Dean asked. "Angels got their hands on some Deloreans? How did we get here?"  
  
"Time is fluid, Dean," Castiel said, looking contemplatively at the street around them. "It's not easy, but we can bend it on occasion."  
  
"And what am _I_ doing here?" Bela asked.  
  
"Worry about that later," Dean said, waving a dismissive hand at Bela before looking firmly at Castiel; Cas had come to see him and Bela hadn't mentioned a similar encounter, so he was pretty sure he was the one who was 'meant' to be here. "If you're not going to bend it back, care to explain what the hell I'm _doing_ here?"  
  
"I told you," Castiel said. "You have to stop it."  
  
"Stop what, huh?" Dean asked. "What, is there something nasty after my Dad?"  
  
The sound of a car horn from nearby briefly distracted Dean and Bela's attention, the two automatically looking at the source of the noise to see what it was, only to turn around and find that the angel had vanished while they were distracted.  
  
"Oh, come on!" Dean said, groaning in exasperation as he glanced around, just in case the angel had just moved somewhere else. "What, are you allergic to straight answers, you son of a bitch?"  
  
"Dean," Bela said, looking pointedly at the hunter, "considering what he just said, maybe we should focus more on finding that young man we just met rather than complaining about the angels?"  
  
Dean glared at her for a moment, but finally sighed and nodded in resignation before hurrying along the street in the direction that John Winchester was still only just visible, his mind focused on the task at hand.  
  
After a few moments of running, Dean was relieved when he saw John in a used car lot, but that relief faded when he saw John standing by an old van when another, more distinctive car was sitting just a short distance away from with no sign that it was attracting his interest…  
  
"Wait here," Dean said.  
  
"What?" Bela said, looking at Dean in confusion. "What are you doing?"  
  
"Stopping him from making the biggest mistake he'll ever make," Dean said, his expression grim as he stood up and walked towards the lot. Stuck for anything else to do, Bela simply sat and watched as Dean walked up to the man who was apparently his father, drawing his attention the black car that she'd once had towed as a parking violation. From her position, Bela could just hear Dean if she strained her ears, but it didn't take much to see that he had won John's interest from the moment he lifted up the Impala's hood to show off the engine. As John examined the car, Dean continued talking, but Bela couldn't catch what he was saying at this point save for the fact that John didn't get the relevance of this new line of questioning, prompting Dean to walk away and head back to join her, looking back only to confirm that John was talking about the Impala with the lot owner.  
  
"The car," Bela said, looking at Dean in near-silent incredulity. "You went and spoke to your father… to tell him to buy a _car_?"  
  
"That car's been there for us for forty years; you don't just _ditch_ something with _that_ much history," Dean said, looking firmly at Bela before he sighed and looked back at where his father was signing the contract. "Anyway, he doesn't seem like he's noticed anything odd following him- no cold spots, no sign of sulphur, stuff like that-; if we're going to do this, we're going to need some wheels of our own."  
  
"You're not going to end up hitching a lift with him, are you?" Bela asked, looking pointedly at Dean.  
  
"Hey, I'll tolerate other cars if we have to; just wanted to make sure Dad doesn't do the dumb thing and buy the wrong one now," Dean said, looking at Bela with a brief smile before his expression became more serious. "Now, c'mon; we've got to get moving before he gets too far ahead…"

* * *

Dean wouldn't admit it to Bela- she was already looking far too sceptical about this plan for comfort-, but he was starting to feel really uncomfortable about his provisional plan to follow Castiel's instructions. Following John hadn't been too hard- the guy might have been an ex-marine by now, but he wasn't exactly expecting anyone to be following him here-, even if the car they'd found wasn't as bad-ass as his usual ride, but the discovery that he had picked up a woman who could only be Dean's mother…  
  
God, time travel was a mess; he knew who the woman was going to be, he knew what would happen to her, he knew they were _related_ , and only the fact that Bela was standing alongside him as they watched them from a nearby alley was stopping him from saying something so inappropriate it was sick.  
  
"Are you all right?" Bela asked, looking at him after they'd stood there in silence for a few moments, watching the future Winchesters drinking milkshakes in a diner and talking about nothing in particular.  
  
"Yeah, I'm good," Dean said, looking wistfully at his parents, unable to stop the slight smile on his face at the sight of them at this point in their lives, so innocently happy together, so ignorant of the challenges they'd face or the pain they'd go through…  
  
Then he remembered that he was standing alongside the woman who'd _killed_ her own parents- not even had the guys to do it herself, but asked a demon to do her dirty work-, and forced his face back into a harder expression. "Anyway, that's not what's important right now; what matters is something's going on that the angel wants us to stop, so we're stopping it."  
  
"Are you sure you're not just focusing on them?" Bela asked, Dean briefly noting that his mother was heading for what looked like the bathroom before he focused his attention on Bela. "We have no idea _why_ we're here-"  
  
"Exactly; who goes to all the trouble of sending someone back in time and being this vague about what we're to do unless it's obvious?" Dean said, turning to look directly at Bela. "We're here to keep an eye on them-"  
  
"And why are you doing that?" an unexpected voice said.  
  
Spinning around, Dean was shocked to find his mother standing there, but he barely had time to process her presence before she rammed her knee into his stomach, throwing him against a nearby metal container. Stuck for options, Bela tried to move towards the other woman, only for Mary to strike her with a powerful punch that sent Bela staggering into the nearest wall. Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Dean reached out and grabbed Mary's outstretched arm, spinning her around to grab the other arm before she could hit him again.  
  
"Any chance we can talk about this?" he asked, resisting the automatic impulse to flirtatiously grin at the hot woman before him (This was his _mother_ , for crying out loud!) in favour of focusing on the facts.  
  
"You've been trailing us since my house," Mary replied, glaring at him.  
  
"What-?" Dean began, before his eyes fell on the bracelet that she was wearing, covered in various protection symbols such as a hexagram, a cross and a Buddha, that Dean had only seen in one place when used by a very particular 'group' of people.  
  
Just when he thought recommending that his father buy the Impala wasn't enough of a brain-fuck, now his mother- the mother who'd been gutted by Azazel and sacrificed whatever was left of her essence on this plan to stop that screwy poltergeist strangling Sam- was a _hunter_?  
  
And here he'd been thinking that the hunting thing was something John introduced everyone to…


	7. Dining with the Campbells

Bela still wasn't sure how she'd agreed to go along with this insane idea in the first. Dean she could understand- his parents had died a long time ago and he wanted the chance to spend some time with them, regardless of whether or not they knew who he was-, but how the hell had _she_ ended up agreeing to go along with him to visit his maternal grandparents?

To be fair, Dean didn't exactly seem that keen on her coming along with him either, but after claiming to Mary that they were a couple of hunters in town on a case, it would seem a bit strange for Dean to turn up somewhere on his own if he was meant to be working with her, and it wasn't like she had anywhere else to go…

Standing in the house where Dean's mother lived with her parents, looking at the well-built but virtually bald man sitting in a chair, Bela had no idea how to feel about this; she wasn't even really Dean's acquaintance right now, and she was meeting his grandparents?

"So, you're hunters?" the man said, staring at the book in his hands without looking up at them. "Well, tell me something, mister hunter, you kill vampires with wooden stakes or silver?"

"Neither," Dean said, with a slight smile. "You cut your heads off."

"And you salt and burn the remains of ghosts if you want to stop them," Bela added, feeling as though she suddenly needed to justify her own presence here; anything that stopped this man looking too closely at them had to be helpful, which included proving that she had practical knowledge…

"So, do we pass the test?" Dean asked, Mary smiling slightly as she stood alongside the other two.

"Yep," the man said, closing the book and tossing it onto a nearby table. "Now get out of my house."

"Dad!" Dean's mother said, looking indignantly at him.

"I don't trust other hunters, Dean," the man said dismissively. "Don't want their help, don't want them around my family."

"Knock it off, Samuel," a voice called from the next room, Bela glancing in the direction of the voice to see an older woman standing beside a table in a room behind them, dressed in a casual dark red shirt and jeans.

"They're hunters," the man- Samuel, Bela reminded herself; evidently Dean's mother had named her second son after him- said firmly.

"Who passed your little pop quiz," the woman said as she walked into the room, revealing light blonde hair in a short cut, "and now I am inviting them to dinner. Are you hungry?"

"Starving," Dean said, Bela nodding in agreement.

"Good," the woman said. "I'm Deanna, you've met my husband Samuel, now wash up."

Bela tried not to grin too broadly as Dean looked over incredulously at his mother, but allowed the smile to spread further across her face when Mary walked out of the room after her parents and Dean turned to look at her.

"What?" he said.

"Nothing," Bela said innocently. "Just wondering why your mother chose to name you after the woman…"

" _Don't_ ," Dean said, looking firmly at her. "Just… don't, OK?"

Considering the already-difficult nature of their situation, Bela decided to stay quiet, but she smiled at Dean to make it clear that she'd be bringing it up again later; it was a minor joke, but it was one that she had a feeling she'd enjoy using…

* * *

"First time in Lawrence, you two?" Deanna asked after they'd eaten some bites of the dinner prepared, Dean trying not to freak out too much at the notion that he was sitting next to his _grandmother_ when she was only a decade or so older than him.  
  
"Well… it's been a while for me, anyway," Dean said, glancing over at Bela who nodded in agreement of his description. "Things have changed… I think."  
  
"You working a job?" Samuel asked.  
  
"Possibly," Bela said. "A contact of ours suggested there might be something here, so… well, here we are."  
  
"A 'contact'?" Samuel repeated, putting down his fork and looking at Dean. "What's that mean?"  
  
"It means I don't trust other hunters either, Samuel," Dean said, smiling briefly at the slightly stunned expression on his grandfather's face, although it was replaced with an equally slight smile later.  
  
"Hey, um," Mary put in, looking curiously at them, "so… why were you following me and John?"  
  
"We… thought something was after him," Bela said with a brief shrug. "We don't any more."  
  
"John Winchester mixing it up with spirits," Deanna said, looking at her husband with a smile. "Can you imagine?"  
  
"I saw that," Mary said, looking over at Samuel as he made a brief snorting sound.  
  
"What?" Samuel said, looking back at her.  
  
"That sour lemon look," Mary clarified.  
  
"Now hold on," Samuel said, looking defensively at her before sighing dismissively at the end. "John's a really, really nice... naive civilian."  
  
"So what?" Mary asked, indicating Dean. "You'd rather me be with a guy like this?"  
  
"NO!" Dean said, looking up in shock before he schooled his expression into a calmer one. "I mean, not that you're not a great gal, but…"  
  
"You and Bela, huh?" Mary said with an understanding smile.  
  
Stuck for what they could actually say to that statement, Dean and Bela exchanged glances for a moment, but then Bela smiled as she reached over to take Dean's hand.  
  
"We've… been through some interesting experiences together," she said at last. "There was this whole thing with that mutual contact of ours…"  
  
"Yeah, guess you had to be there," Dean said, shrugging dismissively as he tried to look warmly at Bela without feeling too sick; anything to discourage his grandfather from even _thinking_ about setting him up with his mom (And _God_ , that was a weird sentence)…  
  
"So," he said, trying to get the conversation to a less disturbing topic, "what about you, Samuel? Working a job?"  
  
"Might be," Samuel said, as he took a drink.  
  
"He's working a job on the Whitshire Farm," Mary put in, prompting her father to glare at her as a thoughtful expression suddenly crossed Dean's face, a warning glare from Bela the only thing that stopped Dean voicing his initial thoughts on the name's nagging familiarity.  
  
"Whitshire?" Bela asked, looking curiously at Samuel, evidently deciding on a more tactful approach. "What happened there?"  
  
"Tom Whitshire," Samuel replied, evidently deciding that there was no harm in sharing this particular information with them. "Local farmer a few towns over; got tangled up in his combine harvester."  
  
"And that's a case?" Dean asked, looking at his grandfather in surprise. "Sounds like a normal accident to me…"  
  
"Except why was he on the combine when all his crops are dead?" Samuel countered.  
  
"Good point," Bela said with a conceding nod. "Was there any sign of demonic omens?"  
  
"That's what I'm going to find out," Samuel said.  
  
"What about the rest of the town?" Dean asked as he put down his cutlery. "Did you find anything on the web… of information that you've assembled?"  
  
"Electrical storms, maybe," Deanna said, looking thoughtfully at him. "The weather service graphs should be here on Friday."  
  
"Ah," Bela said, shooting Dean a warning glare to keep quiet; she'd spent enough time with the hunter to know that he could speak without thinking, which could clearly be problematic when they were in the past given how he'd asked about the Internet over two decades before it would go public.  
  
"You know," Dean said, giving himself a moment to think about his response, "it sounds to me like we might be hunting the same thing. You know, if we go in there in numbers, we could take care of this real quick."  
  
"What part of 'we work alone' do you not understand, son?" Samuel said, glaring at the younger man in a manner that made it clear to Dean that the matter was closed as far as he was concerned.  
  
Bela didn't need to have known Dean for the better part of a year to know that such a response wouldn't be enough to stop him taking this investigation further; knowing Dean, he'd just make sure he got there first.

* * *

Bela wasn't sure how she should feel when Dean dragged her along on his visit to the Wiltshire farm the following day. She was at least relieved that Dean hadn't asked her to dress up as part of the case- there was something amusing about him being dressed as a priest, but he'd commented that he had a feeling someone upstairs would object if she'd tried to pass herself off as a nun, and so she was going to claim to be a volunteer assistant if anyone asked-, but the fact remained that she hadn't participated in any kind of actual hunt for longer than she cared to remember, and now she was getting dropped in the middle of something that appeared to be a demon…  
  
Admittedly, it was hardly getting 'dropped in'- Dean had gone in to talk to the family while Bela had sat outside in the car; it wasn't like she had anywhere else to go, after all-, but Bela still didn't like this; she was used to being in control, and she hadn't had any real sense of control ever since she'd been dropped into the past. She and Dean had been forced to squat in an abandoned building the previous night due to their lack of valid currency for the current era, he'd stolen the priest's attire he was currently wearing from a local costume shop, and now he was taking point while she was reduced to essentially 'guarding the car' like some child-  
  
"We've got a problem," Dean said as he sat back in the driver's seat, breaking off Bela's frustrated train of thought.  
  
"You mean aside from the fact that we're almost forty years in the past and we're working on a case with your teenaged mother?" Bela asked, looking scathingly at Dean, only briefly noting that Mary and Samuel were heading for their own car. "What could make this _more_ of a problem?"  
  
"The demon that was here is the demon that killed Mom," Dean said grimly.  
  
" _What_?" Bela said, looking at Dean in shock.  
  
She'd heard rumours about the circumstances that drove John Winchester to train his sons how to hunt, of course- it was hard to be spend any time in the supernatural world and _not_ learn something about the Winchesters' personal histories, given some of the creatures they'd killed, even without the background research she'd done on John when trying to find that rabbit's foot during the situation that had led to her first meeting with Dean and Sam-, but to know that she and Dean were dealing with the demon that had started it all…  
  
If even half the stories she'd heard about that demon were true, she was far from comfortable with the idea of going up against it in a fight; even when she'd thought of hunters as idiots, she'd known enough about John Winchester to know that it wouldn't be easy for anything to get the chance to _possess_ him, and according to the stories this thing had actually done that…  
  
- _She was on a rack of some sort, screaming as what felt like a cheese-grater of all things was used to take her skin off-  
_ _-She was watching as someone literally cut her open and took out her organs in ascending order of importance-  
_ _-She was pleading as someone held something to her eye that reminded her of an ice-cream scoop, saying something about how he couldn't do this…_  
  
"How do you know?" she asked, shaking off the 'flashback' in favour of looking uncertainly at Dean as he practically tore off his dog-collar before he began to drive after Samuel's car, hoping that he hadn't noticed her brief moment away.  
  
"The kid told me and Mom that his father beat him and his mother until this yellow-eyed guy showed up last week and asked if he wanted the beatings to stop in favour of this guy paying a visit to the kid ten years from now," Dean said grimly. "Add in the fact that the guy had yellow eyes, and it fits Azazel's pattern."  
  
"Azazel?" Bela said, looking curiously at Dean. "That was the demon's name?"  
  
"Learned it a few months after I killed the son of a bitch, but yeah, that's him," Dean said with a firm nod, his gaze fixed on the road ahead. "Which means that I _might_ have a way to stop all this crap before it starts…"

* * *

"Look," Samuel said, looking uncertainly at Dean as Dean slammed a map down on the dining room table, the two men once again dressed in their normal clothes while Deanna cut something up in the kitchen and Bela stood awkwardly to the side, "what do you say we just slow down and talk this thing through?"  
  
"There's nothing to talk about," Dean said firmly.  
  
"Except you're saying it's a demon, and none of us has ever heard of a demon with yellow eyes," Samuel said.  
  
"Yeah, well, I have," Dean said, standing up from the table to look Samuel in the eyes, not even trying to conceal his pain at the thought of what he was discussing. "This thing killed my family."  
  
"Just calm down, son-" Samuel began.  
  
" _Now_ you're asking him to be calm?" Bela said, looking sceptically over at Samuel; she didn't know where her current attitude was coming from, but she felt obligated to make her point and she was going to say it. "You're barely willing to _think_ about working with us earlier, and _now_ you think you have the right to ask him to calm down?"  
  
"She's right," Dean said, looking firmly at Samuel. "Right now, we're _all_ in danger; the sooner you get your family somewhere safe, the better."  
  
"Not until we know what we're dealing with here," Samuel said.  
  
"Samuel's right, you two," Deanna said as she walked in carrying a fruit salad. "It could be a demon, it could be a shapeshifter, it could be any number of things-"  
  
"I _know_ what this thing is," Dean said firmly, as Deanna went back to the kitchen, clearly realising her presence right now was unwanted, "and I'm gonna kill it; that's all the talking I need to do."  
  
"You're going to kill a demon?" Samuel asked, clearly sceptical. "How?"  
  
"There's a hunter named Daniel Elkins," Dean said firmly, tapping a location on the map. "He lives in Colorado. He has Colt's gun. _The_ Colt."  
  
The warning glare he shot Bela was probably overkill, but considering how things had turned out the last time she'd been in the same state as the Colt, he wasn't interested in being nice; regardless of whatever her motives might have been, she'd deprived them of the best weapon in their arsenal to save her own ass…  
  
"Yeah, I heard about the Colt," Samuel said, walking around to the other side of the table to look sceptically at Dean. "Used to tell it to Mary as a bedtime story."  
  
"Well, it's real," Dean said.  
  
"We've both seen it," Bela put in; Dean automatically glared at her at that comment, but otherwise remained focused on the current issue.  
  
"All right…" Samuel said, looking uncertainly at the younger pair after exchanging glances with his wife, "say that it is; you got some kind of crystal ball telling you where this demon's gonna be?"  
  
"Maybe I do," Dean said, pulling John's journal out of his jacket as it hung on a nearby chair and flipping it open to a particular set of pages.  
  
"What's this?" Samuel asked, looking at the journal as Dean put it on the table.  
  
"It's a list," Dean said simply.  
  
"Of what?" Samuel asked.  
  
"My Dad wrote down anyone he thought ever came in contact with the Yellow Eyed Demon: who, where and when," Dean said firmly.  
  
"Why?" Samuel asked.  
  
"'Cause the more he could learn about the son of a bitch, the more he could figure out why it killed my Mom," Dean replied, flipping the page over to indicate a specific date. "Look, Whitshire Farm. I told you that name sounded familiar."  
  
"Whitshire Farm?" Samuel repeated, looking at Dean in surprise. "That was two days ago; how the hell is that on your dad's list?"  
  
"Dean's father… knew a psychic or two who was able to give him some information," Bela said, shrugging out of a lack of anything else to say; she had a feeling that any story Dean came up with at this point wouldn't be particularly plausible, but that explanation might invite less questions than the alternatives.  
  
"Anyway, the source isn't important; what _is_ important is that this says where the demon's going to be tomorrow night," Dean said, indicating another date and address on the page.  
  
"Liddy Walsh?" Samuel said questioningly.  
  
"Haleyville," Dean said, double-checking the map. "That's close."  
  
"I mean, yeah, it's about three miles, but…" Samuel said, exchanging sceptical glances with his wife, both of them clearly doubting Dean's story.  
  
"I know you guys think I'm crazy," Dean said, looking firmly between his maternal grandparents, "but if I'm right, I can find that thing now and stop it once and for all."  
  
He noted Bela's surprised glance at him at that statement, but this wasn't the time to discuss the implications of time travel with her; he had a chance to save his family, and he was going to take it.  
  
With that statement made, he picked up the journal and walked out of the room, leaving Bela to shrug briefly at the Campbell's sceptical expressions before hurrying after Dean.  
  
"Take the journal and wait in the car," Dean said as soon as she entered the hallway, his gaze flicking to the stairs leading up to his mother's room. "I've got… something to do."  
  
Looking back, Dean was never entirely sure if he could explain why he'd simply handed his father's journal to Bela Talbot when they were about to attempt something that could have undone virtually everything he and his family had ever experienced; all he could say was that it had _felt_ right to take that chance.  
  
Maybe it was the unprecedentedly complicated situation they were in, maybe it was the fact that Bela hadn't let him down so far since they got out of Hell together, or maybe it was just the fact that he was starting to accept Castiel's possible motivations for letting Bela out of there, Dean didn't know, and this wasn't the time to analyse them in greater depth; he had a plan, and he'd get it done now and worry about the finer details later.

* * *

"So…" Bela said, after they'd been driving away from the Campbell house for a while with no words exchanged between them since Dean got into the car, "what were you doing in there?"  
  
"Warning Mom not to get out of bed on November 2nd, 1983," Dean said grimly.  
  
"What?" Bela said, looking at him in confusion. "Why-?"  
  
"Because that's how she died," Dean said, his gaze fixed on the road ahead of them. "She gets out of bed to check on Sammy, finds Azazel in his room… and the bastard pins her to the ceiling and cuts her chest open before burning her alive."  
  
"Oh," Bela said, once again lost for anything else to say.  
  
"They're… they're happy, you know?" Dean said after a moment's silence, a wistful expression on his face at the thought, talking more for the sake of talking than anything else. "I mean, Mom and Dad had a few problems towards the end- Dad actually moved out for a while before Mom got pregnant again-, but they were mostly happy, and right now… she describes him as the guy who can still believe in happy-ever-after even after all the crap he saw in the war, she thinks he's going to propose to her tomorrow, and…"  
  
He sighed. "She wants out of this life because the worst thing she can imagine is having her children raised to be hunters."  
  
Dean still wasn't sure why he was telling Bela all this- it could have been nothing more than him needing to talk about it to someone and her being the only person available-, but when he saw the sympathy in her expression as he finished his story, he could almost forget that he was talking to the woman who'd made a deal to kill her own parents…  
  
The faint sound of something fluttering preceded the appearance of Castiel in the back seat of the car, the angel looking at the road ahead as though he'd always been there.  
  
"So what?" Dean asked, after the initial shock was over. "God's my co-pilot, is that it?"  
  
Castiel simply sat in silence, prompting a frustrated sigh from Dean and an anxious glance from Bela; she still wasn't comfortable potentially antagonizing something that could put her back in Hell if he decided she hadn't been worth saving...  
  
"Well, you're a regular Chatty Cathy, aren't you?" Dean said, briefly glaring back at the angel before turning his attention back to the road even as he continued talking. "Tell me something. Why'd you send Bela back rather than Sam?"  
  
"You had to do this alone, Dean," Castiel said.  
  
"But-" Bela began, looking at Castiel in confusion.  
  
"I would have only sent Dean back if it were possible, but the connection I forged between you two when I removed you from Hell remains intact," Castiel explained, looking at her with a slightly apologetic aspect to his manner. "It will eventually dissipate, but for the moment, you are tied to each other; I cannot send one of you away without sending the other."  
  
"Why not?" Dean asked.  
  
"The explanation for that involves a series of partial differential equations-" Castiel began.  
  
"Then we probably won't understand it, so let's just stick with 'you had to do it this way' and leave it at that," Bela said, looking pointedly at the angel for a moment before turning her attention back to the road ahead.  
  
"OK," Dean said, deciding to focus on the most immediate question facing him right now, "if we do this, then the the family curse breaks, right? Mom and Dad live happily ever after, and… Sam and I grow up… playing little league and chasing tail?"  
  
"You realize, if you do alter the future, your father, you, Sam- you'll never become hunters," Castiel said. "And all those people you saved, they'll die."  
  
"I realize," Dean said grimly.  
  
"And you don't care?" Castiel asked, the expression on Bela's face as she stared at him suggesting that she was thinking the same thing.  
  
"Oh, I care," Dean said, keeping his gaze fixed on the road ahead; he'd made his choice, but he couldn't allow himself to think too much about it unless he had to. "I care a lot… but these are my parents. I'm not gonna let them die again. I can't. No, not if I can stop it."  
  
As Castiel vanished, Dean thought that he saw Bela actually looking at him in a wistful manner, but the moment passed before he could be sure if it had happened or not.  
  
With nothing else to do, Dean turned his attention back to the road ahead of them, at the end of which lay the one weapon that could end this whole nightmare before it really started…


	8. The Evils of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who wants to know, I'm skipping over Dean's confrontation with Elkins and the first Campbell/Azazel encounter in Liddy Walsh's house; they were essentially the same as what happened originally
> 
> Some reference to elements of the Campbells' pasts come from the 'Supernatural' novel 'Heart of the Dragon'; if you haven't read it, I recommend it (Set in Season Five, Dean and Sam find themselves dealing with a demonic spirit known as the Heart of the Dragon, a former samurai who was executed by a town due to the manipulations of a demon, turned into a flaming spirit, and summoned back to Earth in 1969, 1989 and 2009, being defeated by the Campbells and John Winchester on his previous manifestations; both encounters were told in the novel through flashbacks before Dean, Sam and Castiel had the chance to vanquish it once and for all).

Dean couldn't believe it; he'd gone to all the trouble of taking the Colt from Elkins years before the guy was meant to die and pass it on to his dad- he'd tried to get in touch with John before he died; that suggested he wanted the guy to have it-, resisting the urge to make snarky comments to Bela about how they could do this the more direct way if they still had the gun back home, and he'd _still_ failed to kill the yellow-eyed son-of-a-bitch that had done so much damage to his family.

OK, so he knew that the dates in Dad's book were accurate, which meant that he still had a chance of tracking the son of a bitch if they could work out where he was meant to appear after his drop-in on Liddy Walsh, but that still left them with the guy still being out there, and now that the bastard had actually _seen_ his mother, Dean was far from comfortable with leaving this hunt alone longer than he had to…

The only benefit of the mess was that at least Samuel was more willing to listen to him now- Bela was still being treated somewhat coldly, but apparently Dean's attempt to shoot the demon had proven his worth for the moment-, and that wouldn't be much good if Dean couldn't convince him of the truth.

"We have to kill this thing now, or Mary dies," he said as he looked at his grandfather, Mary off on another date- potentially _the_ date- with John.

"What?" Samuel said, looking incredulously at him as he and Bela sat at the table, Dean standing off to the side flicking through the journal. "How do you know that?"

"Dean," Bela said, looking warningly at him, "are you sure-?"

"We're not gonna do this half-cocked," Dean said, still search through the journal for another suitable intercept date. "I don't know precisely when it's gonna happen, but it will, trust me."

"So… what, you're some sort of psychic now?" Samuel said, looking sceptically at the other hunter.

"No," Dean said, before he took a deep breath and walked over to the table, sitting down next to Samuel. "Alright, listen to me. Now, this is gonna sound… actually, it's gonna sound massively, massively crazy."

"OK…" Samuel said.

"Dean, are you _sure_ -?" Bela tried to say again.

"Mary is my mother," Dean said, ignoring the bizarre idea of Bela showing concern for something that wasn't her own ass; he'd focus on the wider implications of what he was about to do once it was done.

"Excuse me?" Samuel said, as Bela stared upwards in frustration.

"And I am your grandson," Dean continued solemnly, "and I know what the hell I'm talking about."

"I'm just… an associate of his, by the way; _I'm_ not a relative of yours," Bela suddenly added, as Samuel turned to look at her, disbelief and confusion clear on his face.

"You wanna run that by me again, son?" Samuel asked, apparently deciding that it was easier to focus on Dean right now as he turned his attention back to the other man.

"My real name is Dean Winchester," Dean continued. "I was born January 24th, 1979. My parents are Mary and John Winchester."

"I don't have to listen to this-" Samuel began.

"Mary gets killed by a yellow eyed demon in 1983, and I think that this- what happened tonight- I think this is the moment that he caught her scent," Dean said, still staring intently at his grandfather. "Now, if we don't catch this thing now, and kill it, and it gets away? Then Mary dies. So I am asking you, please."

"You should listen to him," Bela said (Dean thought he heard a car starting outside, but that wasn't important; it was probably just Mary going for her date, and he knew that nothing was going to happen to her or John _there_ ). "I may not like him at times, but he saved my life even when he had every reason to let me die, and is _stubbornly_ focused on helping people even when they're not his family, so I can only imagine how he'll react when his family is the one in danger."

"You can't seriously expect me to-" Samuel began.

"How did I know about the Colt, huh?" Dean said. "How did I know about the Yellow Eyed Demon? Or where it would be? I'm not making this up, Samuel."

"Every bone in my body is aching to put you six feet under," Samuel said, lowering his hands as he looked grimly at Dean for a moment, before his expression softened slight as he continued. "But there's something about you… I can't shake it. Now, I may be crazier than you, son, but I believe you."

"Thank you," Dean said, sighing in relief; he actually thought Bela smiled at this turn of events.

"Now," Samuel said, "how do we find this bastard?"

"Right here," Dean said, as he opened his father's journal once more. "With the list."

"And with the Colt?" Samuel asked.

"Yeah," Dean said, pulling the gun in question out of his jacket and putting it on the table to his right; it might only be for the moment, but after losing it in the future under such crap circumstances, it was nice to have the gun that could kill anything in his arsenal again.

"Here, let me see it," Samuel said.

"Sorry," Dean said after a moment's pause, moving the gun further away from Samuel; after what had happened last time, he wasn't going to let this out of his sight even if time wasn't really complicated right now. "I don't let anybody hold it."

"I'm your grandfather," Samuel said.

"Nothing personal," Dean replied.

"Sure it is," Samuel said, "especially when it's me you're trying to kill."

The implications of that statement hit Dean almost immediately, but even his combat-honed reflexes weren't enough to stop the now-yellow-eyed Samuel thrusting both hands forward and sending him and Bela slamming against the wall, both of them still in their chairs.

"Future boy, huh?" Azazel-in-Samuel said, after giving the two humans a chance to confirm that they couldn't move as he looked between them, nonchalantly sitting in his seat, his eyes now Samuel's brown rather than the demon's yellow, before he stood up and walked over to Dean. "I only know one thing that's got the juice to swing something like that. You must have friends in high places. So, I kill your Mommy? That's why you came all this way? To see little old me?"

"Oh, I came here to kill you," Dean said firmly.

"And her?" 'Samazel' asked, indicating Bela just behind him.

"Necessary addition," Bela said; evidently, she shared Dean's opinion that the less they said right now, the better.

"Huh," the demon said, before shrugging and looking back at Dean. "Hey, wait a minute, if that slut Mary's your Mommy, are you... are you one of my psychic kids?"

Dean's potential response was cut off by the disturbing picture of the older man leaning forward to actually sniff at him, but he was already determined not to think about it; things were sick and weird enough right now…

"No, not you," the demon said as he stepped back. "Maybe you got a sis, or a bro. That's terrific, means it all worked out. After all, it's why I'm here."

"So that's what this is about," Dean said, glaring at the demon in disgust. "These deals you're making… You don't want these people's souls."

"No, I just want their children," the demon said. "I'm here to choose the perfect parents, like your Mommy."

"Why her?" Dean asked. "Why any of them?"

"Because they're strong," Azazel said, his attention focused on Dean; he wasn't sure if the demon even registered that Bela was there any more, but he wasn't going to draw any attention to her than he had to. "They're pure, and they eat their Wheaties. My own little master race… they're ideal breeders."

"What?" Bela said, looking at Azazel in confusion, trying not to think about the obvious implications of that statement; it brought up too many bad memories even _without_ the thought of him doing something to Dean's mother in _that_ body…

"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter," Azazel said, looking mockingly at Dean while waving a dismissive hand at Bela. "No one's breeding with me. Though, Mary? Man, I'd like to make an exception. So far, she's my favorite."

"So why make the deals?" Dean asked, glaring angrily at the demon.

"I need permission," the demon said, his attention so focused on Dean that he missed Deanna slowly advancing into the room behind them (Dean registered the movement, but tried not to think about it; he'd tried to do some reading about tricks to keep his thoughts secret, but it was hard to focus on that crap). "I need to be invited, into their houses, I know, I know, the red tape'll drive you nuts, but in ten short years, it'll all be worth it. 'Cause you know what I'm gonna do to your sibling? I'm gonna stand over their crib and I'm gonna bleed into their mouth. Demon blood is better than Ovaltine, vitamins, minerals… it makes you big and strong."

* * *

From her position off to the side, Bela could only look at Dean in shock at that news.  
  
Sam had _demon blood_ in him?  
  
She'd listened to Gordon Walker's ramblings about Sam Winchester being the Anti-Christ, but she'd never taken them seriously even without the fact that Gordon had clearly been completely demented; the idea that he might have actually been _right_ about that to any degree…  
  
"For what?" Dean said (Bela thought he'd looked shocked at that news as well, but this definitely wasn't the time to bring that topic up). "So they can lead your discount demon army? Is that your big plan?"  
  
"Please," the demon in Samuel said, smirking in satisfaction. "My end game's a hell of a lot bigger than that, kid."  
  
"End game?" Dean said, clearly surprised at this news. "What end game?"  
  
"Like I'm gonna tell you, or those angels sitting on your shoulder," the demon said. "No, I'm gonna cover my tracks good."  
  
"You can cover whatever the hell you want, but I'm still gonna kill you," Dean said firmly.  
  
"Right," the demon said with a slight chuckle. "Now that, I'd like to see."  
  
"Maybe not today," Dean said, glaring coldly at his family's original enemy, "but you look into my eyes, you son of a bitch… 'cause I'm the one that kills you."  
  
"So, you're gonna save everybody, is that right?" the demon said, chuckling even more at that thought. "Is that it? Well, I'll tell you one person that you're not gonna save."  
  
With that comment, he pulled out a knife, glaring at Dean as he held it in front of his stomach. "Your grandpappy."  
  
With that statement, the demon winked and then plunged the knife into Samuel's chest, inflicting a wound that Bela didn't need any kind of training to know would be fatal once the demon stopped inhabiting that meatsuit. As Dean and Deanna yelled in defiance, the demon turned around to face Deanna-  
  
Only to be interrupted as Bela, no longer immobilised by the demon's power, stretched out her hand in a desperate act that would have normally amounted to nothing, but on this occasion sent the demon flying into a wall as Dean found himself able to move again.  
  
"What-?" Dean said, looking at her in confusion, before Bela suddenly fell over, clutching her shoulder with a yell of agony, the handprint that Castiel had left on her arm suddenly feeling as though he was inflicting it all over again…  
  
"Well well well…" Azazel/Samuel's voice said, drawing Bela's attention back to the demon as he got up, looking curiously at her. "What happened to _you_ there? One of my little psychics going renegade on me?"  
  
"Go to _Hell_ …" Bela said, glaring up at him even as she held her aching shoulder, trying to look more in control despite the fact that it was fairly obvious nobody present knew what had just happened.  
  
"When it suits me," the demon said with a smirk, before the sound of a gun being cocked prompted him to turn and look at Deanna, who had used the distraction to grab the Colt from the table and aim it at him. "Come on, you're really going to shoot your hubby?"  
  
"My husband is already dead," Deanna said with a cold stare. "You're just using what's left of him."  
  
"Point," the demon said with a brief smirk, before he thrust a hand towards Deanna in a near-perfect mimicry of Bela's earlier actions, sending the older woman flying back into the kitchen as he vanished right in front of them.  
  
"NO!" Dean yelled, hurrying over to crouch down beside his grandmother, sighing in relief when he felt her stirring as he examined the injuries; if she was moving like that, she wasn't dead yet. She'd been thrown into a cupboard with some force, but the door and her back seemed to have taken most of the damage, with the door preventing her from going far enough into the cupboard to hit her head on anything.  
  
"What…?" Deanna said, shaking her head as Dean slowly moved her forward to examine her back, relieved when he saw no sign of serious spinal damage; there were some cuts where parts of the door had stuck into her, and her ribs felt somewhat tender, but there weren't any obvious signs that anything had been broken.  
  
"What happened there?" Dean said, smiling in what he hoped was a reassuring manner; he didn't like the possible implications of what Bela had just done himself, but they had other matters to focus on right now. "Long story, not relevant; what matters is that you're OK."  
  
"Mary…" Deanna said, shaking her head as she looked urgently at Dean. "Don't worry… about me… he's going after Mary…"  
  
"I'll save her," Dean said, his eyes narrowing as he looked at his battered grandmother, still so concerned about her family even in her condition, picking up the Colt once more before he looked over at Bela. "Watch her."  
  
Bela simply nodded as she walked over to where the older woman lay, crouching down to place a comforting hand on her shoulder as Dean ran out of the house, leaving the two women alone.  
  
"So…" Deanna said, looking up at Bela with a curious smile. "You and Dean… my grandson…?"  
  
"We're just friends," Bela said, looking firmly at her before she paused and sighed in exasperation; something about this woman- or maybe just the fact that she'd only been able to talk to the Winchesters and Bobby about anything worthwhile since she got out of Hell- made her want to talk now that she could. "And we're barely even that, to be honest; I just got dragged into this because there's this whole… thing we went through recently…"  
  
"Is that what… the demon meant… about friends… in high places?" Deanna asked, the older woman moving as though trying to get more comfortable before a sudden tension in her manner resulted in her leaning against Bela.  
  
"That's… complicated," Bela said, suddenly struck by the awkwardness of this conversation; how much could she reveal to this woman without giving away too much information, particularly when angels were still thought not to exist in her time. "Right now, what matters is that you stay awake; how did you and your husband meet?"  
  
"Really?" Deanna said, smiling slightly at her. "He's dead… you're from the future… my grandson's here… and _that's_ … what you ask?"  
  
"I don't have any better ideas," Bela said with a shrug. "So… how did it happen?"  
  
"Saved my life," Deanna said with a slight smile. "A wraith tried to feed on me… Samuel took those personally… he saved my life… couldn't save my parents…"  
  
"Ah, that one," Bela said with a smile; a fair portion of the hunters she'd encountered got into the business after someone else saved them.  
  
"You?" Deanna asked, looking curiously at Bela.  
  
"A demon killed my parents," Bela said, sticking to the facts; if she hadn't told Dean after they'd literally been through Hell together, she wasn't going to tell _this_ woman anything about her past first. "It was… well, it was a bad experience."  
  
"Always are…" Deanna said with a sympathetic sigh that was only slightly let down by her subsequent wince of pain, before she looked more anxiously at Bela. "What he said… about Mary…"  
  
"It was true," Bela said, looking solemnly at the older woman before she reached out to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "But if there's any way to stop it, Dean _will_ find it…"  
  
She might not know much about time travel or worthwhile families- the life she'd had growing up had sucked, to say the least-, but she could be sure of this much; Dean Winchester wasn't the type to give up on anything if it meant that those he considered family were safe.  
  
As Deanna reached up to clasp the hand that was still on her shoulder, Bela was suddenly struck by a strange sensation of being _pulled_ elsewhere…

* * *

As Dean sat up in bed, it didn't take long for him to realise where he was; back in the motel he'd been staying in when Cas started this whole mess, the angel standing at the end of the bed once more.  
  
God… he'd arrived there just in time to see the demon smoking out of Samuel and John wake after his head was left lying on the ground in a manner that necks weren't meant to bend, Mary looking shaken beside him, and everything had been for nothing…  
  
"I couldn't stop any of it," Dean said; he didn't know what effect changing history would have on his memories, but the fact that he was still in this motel room suggested that at least the key details were still the same. "She still made the deal… she still died in the nursery, didn't she?"  
  
"Don't be too hard on yourself," the angel said, staring out of the window at apparently nothing. "You couldn't have stopped it."  
  
"What?" Dean said, standing up to look pointedly at the angel.  
  
"Destiny can't be changed, Dean," Castiel said, as he turned to face Dean. "All roads lead to the same destination."  
  
"Then why'd you send me back?" Dean asked.  
  
"For the truth," Castiel replied. "Now you know everything we do."  
  
"What the hell are you talking about?" Dean asked.  
  
Even as he stood in silence, the angel nevertheless answered Dean's question as he turned his gaze to the other bed in the room, which now that Dean looked at it had clearly not been slept in any time recently…  
  
"Where's Sam?" he asked, looking back at the angel.  
  
"We know what Azazel did to your brother, what we don't know is why; what his endgame is," Castiel said. "He went to great lengths to cover that up."  
  
"Where's Sam?" Dean repeated.  
  
"425 Waterman," Castiel said solemnly. "You must stop him from heading down a dangerous road, Dean. Or we will."  
  
Dean would have answered that question, but the sound of a door opening behind him prompted him to turn around.  
  
He wasn't sure what was the greater shock; seeing Bela Talbot in the bathroom, or the fact that Deanna Campbell, fully healed but otherwise unchanged since he last saw her, was now in the present.  
  
"Uh… hi?" he said at last, thoughts of Sam temporarily forgotten in the face of dealing with this immediate issue.  
  
On top of whatever the angels wanted Sam to stop doing, now he had his _grandmother_ to worry about?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there you have it; my second major deviation from canon


	9. Promises of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope this chapter meets with everyone's approval; working out the best way for Deanna to be introduced to her youngest grandchild was NOT easy

"So… you think this happened because you were touching when Cas took me back?" Dean asked, as the three of them sat in the Impala heading for their destination, Deanna and Bela sitting in the back seats of the Impala as Dean drove it. Deanna had heard enough of Dean's talk with Samuel/Azazel to work out that she had accompanied them back to the future, but Dean had preferred to head off to track down Sam rather than wait around to talk, and Bela and Deanna had accepted the subsequent need to discuss things on the go.

"It's… well, it's the best thing I can think of right now," Deanna said, looking at her grandson uncertainly. "Did… did you just call an angel… _Cas_?"

"His name's Castiel," Bela said with a slight smile, still reeling from the thought that she had saved someone because she'd been touching them at the right time. "Dean just has a tendency to give people nicknames; he does that a lot."

"But an angel…" Deanna said, shaking her head incredulously. "God… hunting has become a _lot_ more complicated…"

"Actually, Castiel's the only angel we've encountered so far; he's said there's more angels out there, but we haven't seen them yet because of the Seals," Bela explained, cursing as the renewed intensity of Deanna's stare reminded her that they hadn't told her about the Seals yet.

"The what?" Deanna asked, looking sharply at the other woman.

"Basically, the demons are trying to break these 'Seal' things that are keeping the devil locked up in Hell," Dean said, his attention focused on the road ahead. "We've worked out that this demon bitch called Lilith is behind it, but we're kind of stuck on how to find her at the moment; we don't even know how to _find_ the Seals right now, never mind what ones the demons are going to break…"

"The Devil…" Deanna said, shaking her head incredulously at that news. "I go a few decades forward, and now the demons are getting ready to let their father out…"

"You heard that story?" Dean asked.

"Well… a few bits and pieces, anyway," Deanna said with an uncertain shrug. "We never really encountered that many demons; they've never appeared that often…"

"They've become a bit more common these days," Dean said grimly- he recalled Bobby mentioning a greater number of possessions taking place back when they'd initially exorcised Meg, but this wasn't the time to think about that-, before he finally stopped the car in front of an old warehouse. "We're here."

"We're where?" Bela asked, looking sceptically at the warehouse. "If you brought us here-"

"According to Cas, this is where Sam is," Dean said, as he turned to look at them.

"Cas?" Deanna said, before the name came to her, prompting a disapproving glare at her grandson. "Dean, he's an _angel_ -"

"He doesn't seem to get human behaviour, Grams; I don't think he'll mind," Dean said, trying not to think about the fact that he'd just automatically called this woman 'Grams'; as nice as it was to have a living relative again, he should be having more trouble thinking of a woman that age as a grandmother…

"Anyway," he said, focusing on the building, "I'll check this out and get back to you when I've got what we're looking at; I'd rather not get stuck introducing you if Sam's in trouble."

"You think he will be?" Deanna asked, looking anxiously at him.

"We're Winchesters; we've got a tendency to get dropped in it," Dean said, before turning his attention back to the building, walking out of the car and heading towards the building. Quickly identifying a decently-sized window at an angle that would allow him to look inside without attracting too much attention, Dean walked up and peered inside it, only for his eyes to widen in confusion at the sight before him. Sam was standing alongside the dark-haired woman he'd seen his brother sharing a room with when he'd found him again- who was clearly not just some one-night stand, even if she was now dressed in rather well-fitting leather-, both of them positioned in front of a man tied to a chair standing under a Devil's Trap made of chains.

"Where's Lilith?" Sam said, glaring at the man in the chair.

"Kiss my ass," the man replied, his eyes going black in a manner that confirmed his demonic status.

"I'd watch myself if I were you," Sam said, smiling in a manner that Dean didn't like.

"Why?" the demon replied, its eyes returning to 'normal' even as its tone remained mocking. "Because you're Sam Winchester, Mr. Big Hero? And yet here you are, slutting around with some demon. Real hero."

"Shut your mouth," Sam retorted.

"Tell me about those months without your brother," the demon said, smirking as it looked at him. "About all the things you and this demon bitch do in the dark."

Dean's eyes widened as Sam exchanged glances with the woman.

 _Demon bitch_ …

Dean suddenly wasn't sure what he was looking at, but he knew he didn't like it; the idea of his brother working _with_ a demon was wrong on so many levels…

"Huh?" the tied demon said, still smirking at Sam in a manner that something tied up and trapped had no right to have on its face. "Tell me, bro."

Glaring at the demon, Sam held out his hand towards the possessed man in front of him, and the black smoke that was all that demons were without a meatsuit seemed to literally burst from the man's mouth, leaving the body to make contact with the floor beneath him, leaving a burnt circle in the middle of the Devil's Trap.

As the woman and Sam exchanged smiles, Dean was only grateful that his grandmother hadn't seen that; seeing Sam exorcise a demon without using an actual ritual might have been cool, but that would _not_ be a good way for her to meet her grandson.

"He's in there," he said, turning to look at Deanna and Bela- they'd walked out of the car while he was checking out the view from the window, even if they hadn't gone inside the building yet- with a grim smile that he hoped concealed his shock at what he'd just witnessed. "He's just… busy with something; I'll help him tie up the loose ends and then call you in."

"But-" Deanna began.

"Trust me," Bela said, looking apologetically at the older woman. "If Dean Winchester doesn't want you to talk with his brother right now, there's no point trying to get him to change his mind."

"Just… wait in the car and give me a moment," Dean said, hoping that would be enough; he wanted to at least try and clear this up before any introductions were made.

The two women might know that Sam had demon blood in him, but he wasn't going to have anyone talk about that unless it became absolutely necessary; if anyone asked, he was going to say the blood had stopped being an issue when the demon died and leave it at that.

As the two women walked back to the Impala, Dean turned and walked into the warehouse, his expression grim as he walked through the front door to confront his brother, who had untied the former demon host and was carrying him towards the door, the unknown brunette behind him.

"So," Dean said, deciding to cut to the chase as the two of them noticed his presence- the ex-meatsuit didn't seem to be in a position to register much of anything-, "anything you wanna tell me, Sam?"

"Dean, hold on, okay?" Sam said, looking urgently back at him as the dark-haired woman stood off to the side and the ex-meatsuit was left sitting on the floor. "Just let me-"

"You gonna say, 'let me explain'?" Dean asked, walking into the warehouse with a slow, deliberate pace, glaring at his brother all the while. "You're gonna explain this? How about this? Why don't you start with who she is, and what the hell is she doing here?"

"It's good to see you again, Dean," the woman said, calmly smiling at him in a manner that seemed slightly familiar…

"Ruby?" Dean said, looking at the woman in surprise; the meatsuit had changed, but after seeing Meg and Azazel in a couple of different meatsuits, it wasn't hard to realize how some aspects of the demon's identity went beyond physical appearance. "Is that Ruby?"

Sam's silence was more than enough of an answer for Dean. Before the female demon could react, Dean grabbed her and shoved her against the nearest wall, pulling out the knife that had once belonged to her and preparing to stab the bitch who'd practically led him to Lilith-

"Don't!" Sam yelled, grabbing his hand before he could do any actual damage with the knife, grabbing Dean's wrist and twisting it until he was forced to let go of the knife. Acting on instinct, Dean threw Sam to the side and turned his attention back to the woman, only to find himself pinned to the wall with her hand around his throat before he could work out what to do next.

"Ruby!" Sam yelled at her. "Stop it!"

After a moment of staring had gone by, the demon finally released her grip on his throat, leaving Dean with both feet on the ground and trying not to look more shaken by the attack than he was.

"Well," he said at last, once he was sure his throat wouldn't affect his voice, glaring between the demon and his brother, "aren't you an obedient little bitch?"

"Ruby," Sam said, as the demon continued to glare at Dean in a manner that suggested she was waiting for a chance to attack him again before looking over at Sam. "Ruby, he's hurt."

Dean was about to object to that assessment before he realised that Sam was referring to the former meatsuit sitting down off to the side; that guy _was_ probably rather battered after whatever the demon did to his body. After shooting a final glare at Dean, Ruby walked over to take the man from Sam, and then turned back to the door.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" Dean asked.

"The ER," Ruby replied. "Unless you want to go another round first."

With nothing else to be said to that, Dean just stood in silence as Ruby walked off- hopefully the other two women weren't somewhere where Ruby would easily see them; demons finding out about Deanna now would _really_ suck-, before he turned his attention to Sam.

Any other day and any other situation, he might have just walked off and left Sam to think about what he'd done on his own, but with their grandmother about to meet Sam for the first time, Dean felt that he might as well say his piece now.

"What the _Hell_ was that?" he asked indignantly.

"An exorcism-" Sam began.

"Without a single bit of Latin spoken?" Dean countered. "Sam, I get that you went to Stanford and I barely got the GED, but I'm not _that_ stupid; that kind of thing doesn't _happen_ , OK?"

"Dean, come on, man-" Sam began.

"Do you even know how far off the reservation you've gone?" Dean countered. "How far from normal? From human?"

A part of Dean briefly thought that he was being a bit hypocritical- he hadn't complained about that whole thing where Bela threw Azazel away when he was trying to kill Deanna-, but he was able to quickly dismiss that part; what Bela did had been weird, but at least she'd looked shocked about it and clearly hadn't known what was happening, whereas Sam was working with a goddamn _demon_ to pull this off (Whatever it was, anyway)…

"I'm just exorcising demons-" Sam began.

"With your mind!" Dean yelled, the subsequent silence dominating the room before Dean voiced a question he was almost dreading to learn the answer to. "What else can you do?"

"I can send them back to hell," Sam said. "It only works with demons, and that's it."

"What else can you do?" Dean repeated, grabbing Sam and pushing him backwards into the wall

"I told you!" Sam retorted, pushing his hand away even as he kept his gaze fixed on Dean.

"And I have every reason to believe that," Dean said, glaring back at his brother.

"Look, Dean, I know I should have mentioned something earlier, but try to think of the other side here," Sam said, looking urgently at him.

"The other side?" Dean repeated inquiringly.

"I'm pulling demons out of innocent people-" Sam began.

"Use the knife!" Dean said, regretting it even as he said it, already knowing what Sam's response would be.

"The knife kills the victim; what I do, most of them survive!" Sam said (That was one aspect of the knife where Dean agreed with his brother; in the heat of the fight, it was just easier not to think about that and hope that most of the people you stabbed had been hosts for so long that they'd be dead once you exorcised the demon anyway). "Look, I've saved more people in the last five months than we save in a year."

"Is that what Ruby wants you to think?" Dean asked. "Kind of like the way she tricked you into using your powers?"

"She helped me learn how to use them, that's all; I know what I'm doing-" Sam began.

"Cas doesn't seem to agree with you," Dean interjected.

"Wha- _Cas_?" Sam said, looking at Dean in surprise. "As in… you're talking about Castiel, right?"

"Cas said that if I don't stop you, he will," Dean said, staring at his brother to assess his reaction. "See what that means, Sam? That means that God doesn't want you doing this. So, are you just gonna stand there and tell me everything is all good?"

"It…" Sam said, looking uncertainly at Dean before he spoke again. "I'm not gonna let it get too far-"

"It's _already_ too far, Sam!" Dean said, looking indignantly at him "God, if I didn't know you, _I'd_ wanna hunt you, and so would other hunters!"

"You were gone, I was here, and I had to keep on fighting without you!" Sam retorted

"And what I'm doing… it works."

"Well, tell me," Dean said, letting his contempt dominate his tone, "if it's so terrific, why'd you lie about it to me?"

Sam was about to reply, but he stopped himself before he could say anything, clearly stuck for an appropriate response.

"Excuse me?" a voice said, Dean cursing as he turned to see Bela and Deanna standing in the door of the building, Deanna looking uncertainly at the two men (God, he hoped they'd just taken the current silence as a good cue). "Can we… come in now?"

"We'll talk about this later," Dean said, his voice low as he addressed Sam before he raised his voice slightly, stepping aside to indicate the unfamiliar woman now walking towards them. "Sam, this is Deanna Campbell."

"Campbell?" Sam repeated, clearly recognising his mother's maiden name as he looked at her curiously, a smile on his face at the chance to discuss something less awkward. "You're a relative of Mom's?"

"Actually, Sam…" Deanna said, smiling awkwardly at him. "I'm your grandmother."

Sam blinked.

"What?" he said, clearly confused at such a statement from a woman who could only be a decade older than him at most.

"Long story short," Bela said, smiling awkwardly at Sam as Deanna smiled at him out of a lack of anything else to do, "Castiel sent us back in time to 1973, we saw your parents and met your mother's grandparents, had a scuffle or two with a demon, and then Deanna here ended up coming back with us when Castiel sent us home."

"Oh," Sam said, looking between Dean and Bela for a moment as though trying to determine their honesty, before he finally turned to look at the older woman. "You're… you're…"

"I believe 'Grandma' is the appropriate term?" Deanna said, a slightly tearful yet teasing gleam in the corner of her eyes as she looked at Sam, releasing her grip on Bela as she walked up to the youngest living Winchester. "It's… odd, I know, but I have-"

Deanna's further words were cut off as Sam suddenly wrapped his arms around the woman, an initially uncertain expression replaced with an incredulous grin as he held her, Deanna returning the hug before he stepped back.

"You're… uh, you seem very…" he said, clearly stuck for the best way to say it.

"Relaxed about being in the future?" Deanna finished for him with a sad smile. "Well, when you met your future husband when he killed a wraith to save your life, and you've just seen him stab himself while possessed, it takes a lot to surprise you."

"Yep, it's true," Dean said, looking at Sam's stunned expression with a smile, enjoying the humour of Sam's reaction to this revelation if it gave him the chance not to think about what he'd learned about Sam himself. "Turns out Dad had a pretty standard background, but Mom was in the hunting game since she was born."

" _What_?" Sam said, looking at Dean incredulously.

"She actually did a good job against him before we established that we were hunters as well," Bela said with a slight smile as she indicated Dean, before her smile faltered at the memory of what they had just experienced.

"Couldn't do anything else about it, though," Dean said grimly, guessing where Sam's immediate thoughts were about to go as his brother looked at him. "We had the Colt and the goddamn yellow-eyed demon standing right in front of us, and we just couldn't kill that bastard…"

"The demon?" Sam said in surprise. "As in… _the_ demon?"

"Yep," Dean said grimly. "We had a shot to stop all this crap before it got started- pretty much on the day Mom attracted his influence-, and he ended up stabbing our grandfather in the gut while using him as a meatsuit…"

"Dean," Deanna said, glaring over at her evident namesake. "You saved me; I think we should focus on what you _did_ do rather than worry about what you couldn't."

"Saved you?" Sam repeated, looking at his grandmother in shock.

"We… managed to make the demon retreat when he was about to kill her," Bela explained, Dean not needing the warning look she gave him to know where she was going with this; she didn't want to bring up her little 'moment' when she'd saved Deanna, so he wasn't going to talk about that for the moment. "After that, I stayed to help while Dean left to catch the demon-"

"Got there just in time to see Mom making a deal with the bastard to bring Dad back to life, and then Cas pulled Bela and me back to the future before I could find him myself," Dean put in.

"From there…" Bela said, shrugging awkwardly out of a lack of anything else to say. "Well, we're assuming that Castiel took her into the future by accident because I was touching her when we were taken forward."

"Oh," Sam said, looking at Deanna for a moment before he looked at Bela. "Uh… thanks?"

"You're welcome," Bela said, smiling briefly back at Sam in a manner that made it clear she understood his current discomfort; considering what she'd done to them in the past, the idea that she'd restored one of their family to them had to be difficult to process.

"So…" Dean said, looking around at the three of them. "What now?"

"First," Deanna said, looking firmly but apologetically at her grandchildren, "I'd… like to spend some time finding out about… what's been happening in the world. Then… maybe we can… talk?"

As much as he instinctively wanted to be offended by that request- they were family, and she deliberately wanted to _avoid_ talking to them?-, Dean supposed he couldn't blame her for that.

If he'd come back from Hell to find that the only thing left of Sam were his kids, the way he had in those first couple of hours before he and Bela found a paper, he'd have wanted some time to himself to process everything else before he had to spend time with his nephews/nieces, even if they'd known about him and accepted that he was who he said he was.

"Need to get used to it all, huh?" he said with an understanding smile.

"Yes," Deanna said, looking apologetically at them. "I want to get to know you both, but… well, I only just lost Mary and Samuel…"

"And you need time," Sam said, his initial smile having faltered despite his understanding expression. "I… I get that."

Dean knew Sam well enough to know that his brother wasn't totally happy about that- after all the times he'd wished for a normal family, it had to suck finding another relative and losing her so relatively quickly, even if she was just taking some time to adjust-, but he was willing to accept it.

"But… where are you going to go?" Sam asked, looking uncertainly at her. "I mean-"

"I'll take her," Bela said.

"Huh?" Dean said, looking at the thief in surprise.

"Well, I'm not likely to bring up many bad memories, seeing as I'm not a relative, and I've certainly got enough resources to spare to help Deanna get adjusted to how far we've come over the last few decades," Bela said, smiling briefly at the older woman before she looked at Dean. "You can call to check in on her or have someone check in for you if you want, but I think-"

"Can you two just… give us a minute?" Dean said, looking sharply over at Sam and Deanna for a moment before he took hold of Bela's arm and sharply taking her off to another corner of the warehouse, leaving Deanna and Sam at the entrance.

"What-?" Bela began as she glared at Dean.

"Why are you doing this?" Dean asked, purposefully keeping his voice low so that the other two couldn't hear them.

"Excuse me?" Bela said, returning Den's new glare with one of her own.

"OK, we got out of Hell together, we both wanted to figure out what had happened to bring us back, I got that," Dean said, still glaring at Bela as he spoke. "The Witnesses attack us and you're targeted; again, your helping us stop them made sense. I could even get you going along with me during our last little jaunt because the angels sent us there and we weren't going to get back if we didn't go along with the plan… but why the hell are you _volunteering_ to help my grandmother settle in to her future? What's in it for you?"

"I can't just want to do something helpful?" Bela asked, her awkward expression making it clear that she recognised the stupidity of that statement in the face of her past actions even as she said it.

"When the last time you helped us ended with you stealing our best weapon for your own ends?" Dean said, glaring at her. "Cas might have seen something in you worth saving, but I'm still not sure you should be here-"

"I'm _not_ going back there," Bela said firmly.

Dean blinked.

"What?" he asked, clearly uncertain how to react; the statement sounded good, but it created a great deal of ambiguity about her potential motives that he didn't like.

"Do you remember what I said to you when we first met?" Bela asked, staring firmly at him.

"Something about the world being impossible to save so we might as well enjoy the ride to Hell, right?" Dean asked, his initial glare replaced with an only-slightly-hostile curiosity as he listened to her; even if she hadn't been willing to let his brother die to make some cash, he'd have hated her for dismissing everything he and his family had done as pointless.

"Essentially, yes," Bela said, nodding back at him before she continued speaking, voicing the thoughts that she'd never spoken of before. "I meant what I said at the time, but after actually seeing Hell… and then learning about the Apocalypse…"

"You realised that it can get worse and we actually _can_ stop it?" Dean asked, suddenly not inclined to joke; his memories of Hell were still rather fragmentary, but what he was remembering wasn't pleasant.

"I realised that if we can stop that, we _have_ to," Bela said firmly, her tone leaving no room for argument. "Things aren't perfect here, I still believe that, but if Lucifer gets out, they're definitely going to get worse, and I… well, I know what's out there, we have an _idea_ of how to stop it…"

Despite himself, Dean smiled at this news.

"All it takes is a good kick, huh?" he said, grinning humourlessly at her as she looked uncertainly back at him for a moment. "What happened to us all being revenge-driven sociopaths a stone's throw away from being serial killers?"

"I… might have exaggerated how bad you were; it's not like you were still doing it to target the thing that killed your mother, after all…" Bela admitted, smiling at Dean in a weakly apologetic manner.

"And you think that lets you off?" Dean asked, looking firmly at Bela; now that this was out in the open, he wasn't going to just let her off with an awkward apology after all the crap she'd said to them.

"Well…" Bela said, pausing for a moment before she indicated where Sam and Deanna were awkwardly talking together near the door of the warehouse. "When you get down to it, I wasn't coping with things any better than you were- ignoring something like my deal wasn't exactly healthier than your approach, after all-, but at least your life gave you people who _cared_ when you got out of Hell…"

She fell silent after that, clearly uncomfortable about how much she'd admitted to, but Dean already knew that he wasn't going to call her on that issue; talking about family was never going to be a comfortable issue, particularly not in this kind of context.

She might have been a bitch in the past, but she was obviously trying to move past it, which left him with the final choice to help her or kick her to the kerb.

"OK," he said, nodding at her with a slight smile (If anyone asked, he'd say that he was just going along with the angel's judgement and take it all from there). "You think you can help her adjust to the last forty-plus years of history… be my guest."

His eyes narrowed. "Just so long as you tell us the _second_ you reach the point where you want to tell her anything about the supernatural side of things; modern history's fine, but I'm filling her in on the family myself."

"Of course," Bela said, nodding at him.

Trusting his grandmother's safety with the woman who'd betrayed them at least twice might be a strange judgement call- to say nothing of her threatening Sam during their first meeting-, but after the display of raw honesty he'd just seen from her, Dean didn't think she'd try anything like that again…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone feels that Dean's being a hypocrite for respecting Bela's silence about her telekinetic burst while condemning Sam for using his powers, I feel that the difference is that he knows Sam's powers come from his demonic blood (Even if he doesn't know HOW Sam became that powerful yet) whereas Bela clearly didn't know what she was doing and Dean's more willing to consider it a matter for Bela alone until they've worked out what it is.


	10. Separate Paths

As she opened her eyes, Bela initially sat up sharply, the previous night's nightmares still fresh in her mind- she could almost _see_ the face of her torturer now, even if it tended to change on a regular basis-, but calmed down as she took in her apartment, protective amulets and sigils in the wards under the wallpaper and the reassuring sound of Deanna Campbell making breakfast in the next room.

After the initial introductions had concluded, Bela had to admit that the previous night had ended rather calmly for such a unique day. Dean and Sam had decided to head back to their motel room for a good night's sleep- something about the way they'd left suggested to Bela that they had other things to discuss that had been interrupted by her and Deanna's earlier arrival, but she wasn't about to push her luck by asking- while Bela had taken Deanna back to her apartment. It was a bit of a long drive, and she'd had to hotwire a car to get there- she'd naturally park a short distance from her apartment to discourage the possibility of someone identifying her as the thief-, but all four of them had agreed that a protected location would be the best place for them to discuss what had taken place over the last few decades since Deanna had been active, and Bela had already spent the last few days before their time-travel jaunt securing the room against supernatural detection.

After parting from the Winchesters, the two women had agreed during the drive to Bela's apartment that at least the first few days would focus on getting Deanna caught up with world history in conventional society, ranging from the end of the Cold War to the 9/11 attacks, based on both Deanna's questions about events in her time and Bela's own experiences.

Right now, Bela's concern was how long it was going to be before Deanna broke down; seeing her husband essentially kill himself wasn't something that you could easily get over, after all. She had thought about attempting to perform an actual séance to give Deanna a chance to talk to her husband and say goodbye- she'd certainly made it work as one of her many means of making a living-, but she hadn't taken long to dismiss that idea; things were awkward enough between her and the Winchesters without her bringing something like that into the equation. Dean might not want to die himself, but she'd heard enough about the Winchester's hunts to know that the brothers preferred to leave the dead alone when they weren't actively harming anyone, even without witnessing his concerns when they'd initially been resurrected that someone else had died to bring them back.

The other woman was coping so far, but Bela doubted that would last much longer; she might have denied what had happened to her after she'd lost her family for different reasons, but she knew from experience that denial could only take you so far…

The sound of a phone ringing distracted Bela from her bleak thoughts, prompting her to pick up her phone and answer it, grateful for anything that would give her a chance not to think about _that_ issue.

"Calling to make sure we're alive?" she asked with a teasing edge to her voice, recognising Dean's number from their past conversations.

" _Just letting you know that we'll be leaving the motel now; we got a call from an old friend of Dad's about some hunt he needs some help on, so we'll be checking it out for the next few days_ ," Dean said, an edge to his tone that Bela could somehow guess wasn't just about the current hunt. " _How's, uh… how's Grandma_?"

"Settling in," Bela said, looking at her guest as she sat at the table, eating her breakfast while trying not to pay too much attention to what Bela was doing. "We've only covered some of the essentials of the last few decades so far; I'll start bringing her up to speed over the next week or so."

" _Cool_ ," Dean said, sounding grateful. " _By the way, we called Bobby to fill him in on what's gone down recently, so he knows about… well, your guest_ …"

"But that's as far as it goes, right?" Bela asked, guessing where Dean was going with this.

" _That's as far as it goes_ ," Dean confirmed. " _Anyone else wants to know about her, it's need-to-know only; considering everything Cas said about things having to happen, I'm not going to draw any more attention to her being here than we have to_."

Bela would have pointed out how pointless it was to think about keeping secrets from the group that Dean was obviously most concerned about- considering that Castiel had been responsible for the time-travel in the first place, he was almost certainly aware that Deanna Campbell was in the present-, but there was no point in bringing that up; Dean was willing to trust her, so she was going to tolerate his own desire for privacy even if she didn't think was totally necessary.

"Well…" she said, stuck for anything else to say right now. "Good luck with that hunt."

" _Thanks_ ," Dean replied. " _Shouldn't be too difficult- Travis said he just needed assistance on finishing this one because he broke his arm recently-, but everything helps_."

As he ended the call, Bela put her phone back in her pocket and looked back at Deanna, who had paused in her eating to looking anxiously at her host.

"They're fine," she said, smiling reassuringly at the older woman. "Some friend of their father's just asked for help with a hunt because he broke his arm a while back; it should be simple enough."

"Can any hunt be simple?" Deanna said, looking thoughtfully at Bela. "I mean… if it was that easy, would we be needed?"

"Well… compared to some of the things your grandsons have done, that kind of hunt _is_ simple," Bela said with a smile. "I heard one story about how they thwarted a demon assault on a police station by recording the exorcism and then playing it on the station speakers while they were being attacked."

"Really?" Deanna said, looking at Bela in surprise. "You can do that now?"

"Among other things," Bela said, nodding at the woman with a smile; if she recalled her history correctly, making those kind of recordings in Deanna's time would have been rather difficult to accomplish under the circumstances described.

"Well…" Deanna said, nodding thoughtfully at that news. "Sounds like hunting's moved with the times, anyway."

"In some ways," Bela noted. "Of course, we're always having to learn some new rules; learning that angels still exist was a bit of a shock for all of us…"

"And… my family-?" Deanna began.

"Dean and Sam are alive, and that's it as far as I know; if you want to know more, you'll have to ask them," Bela said before the other woman could finish her sentence; Dean had made it clear that he was going to tell their grandmother about the family history, and that was that.

"Of course," Deanna said, nodding at that before she looked curiously at Bela. "How did… you meet them?"

"It was an interesting little case involving a cursed rabbit's foot," Bela said, smiling wistfully at the memory; it had been strangely fun when you looked back at the case, even if it wasn't that fun to face the prospect of your imminent death when the foot was lost…

"Anyway," she said, pushing that thought aside as she turned her attention back to Deanna, "Dean and I recently ended up in a… difficult situation… until we managed to get out with some help from a new friend of ours, and we've been… well, we're helping each other out when we can."

"You don't have any family yourself?" Deanna asked, a slight tone of surprise to her voice.

"My family died long ago," Bela said, hoping that her tone would make it clear that she didn't want to discuss this particular topic any more than she had to; if she hadn't told Dean and Sam the truth, she definitely wasn't going to tell someone she'd only met yesterday, even if 'yesterday' was over four decades ago in this case…

And why did she care about what the Winchesters thought about her? She'd been dragged out of Hell and had a 'connection' with Dean and was helping this woman adapt to her current drastic change of circumstances; they were only together by chance and she'd be happy to go her own way and get back to her usual work as soon as the Apocalypse wasn't a factor any more…

Wouldn't she?

"Now then," she said, smiling at Deanna as she reached over to remove a recently-purchased laptop from her bag and show it to the older woman, eager for the chance not to think about what had just crossed her mind, "if you're going to get around in daily life, the first thing you should probably be aware of is the Internet…"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my longest chapter, I know, but this was always intended to focus on Deanna and Bela establishing their dynamic as Bela begins her 'lessons'


	11. Campbell Family History

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Further references to some past hunts for the Campbells come from the novel _Heart of the Dragon_

"Angels," Deanna said, looking out of the window with a wistful smile as the car drove towards its destination. "I can't believe you've finally encountered _angels_ …"

"That's not something you've encountered before either?" Bela asked, looking curiously at Deanna.

"We heard a few rumours in Samuel's family library, but there was nothing there to confirm their existence one way or the other," Deanna said with a shrug. "You know how it is; even in this job, there are some things that you just can't confirm the existence of."

"Like Bigfoot?" Bela asked with a smile, remembering some of the stories she'd heard over the years about that particular creature; none of them had ever been proven, but at the same time there were enough stories out there to create the idea that there was something to it all.

"Exactly," Deanna said, nodding in confirmation of Bela's statement.

Bela might have developed a low opinion of other hunters, but she had to admit that they could provide some interesting stories, and the Campbells had certainly encountered some interesting threats. Admittedly, her husband had been the one with the longest background- according to some of the stories Samuel had told, the Campbells had been hunting since they arrived in America, while Deanna had just fallen into the life after Samuel saved hers-, but they'd still dealt with some interesting threats, ranging from a household full of vampires to a Chinese demon that burned its victims alive.

Talking of hunts, it sounded like things were still going well for the Winchesters. She'd received a call from Sam about recent events, but it sounded like their most recent hunt had been fairly straightforward; they'd initially thought that they were investigating a vampire, but it had turned out to be a shapeshifter that had suffered a psychotic breakdown and was posing as various movie monsters. Dean had apparently been 'occupied' with the waitress who'd been the shifter's target when Sam had called, but Sam had been willing to listen as Bela had shared some of the things she'd learned about the Campbell family history from Deanna.

Even during that conversation, however, Deanna had declined to get involved; she was willing to tell her grandsons about the finer details of the discussed hunts when they next met, but Deanna was still showing some reluctance to commit to a meeting until she knew more about this world.

With the issue of Deanna's future comfort in mind, Bela had asked her if there was any old properties she would like to examine, which had prompted Deanna to suggest their current trip to a location that she claimed was an old compound used by some of Samuel's relatives to store various books and weapons that might be required by future generations for particularly challenging hunts. Although Bela had been sceptical of the idea that such a facility could have been abandoned in the early seventies and still be intact today, Deanna had seemed so determined to take a look that Bela had found it impossible to reject the suggestion without at least giving it a shot…

"Here we are, Deanna said, as Bela pulled around a corner and found herself approaching a large building at the other end of the small road she was now on.

"This is your library?" Bela said, looking at the building in surprise as she parked the car and the two women got out, allowing her to study it more closely. All things considered, it looked like nothing more than an old warehouse, the kind that she'd come to associate as the place where the monsters hid rather than where hunters set themselves up. The chain link fence around it and the barbed wire at the top was secure, but fairly basic, as were the metal walls around them, but the various shelves and boxes surrounding them as they walked added to the idea that she was looking at a place that hadn't been used for a while, even without the thick layer of dust on the furniture around them.

"It doesn't look like much here, I know," Deanna said, smiling at Bela as she opened the door and walked into a side room a desk at the end giving the impression that it had been used as a study, "but if you look in _here_?"

Before Bela could ask what Deanna was doing, the older woman crouched down and opened a hatch in the floor, revealing a small ladder that led down to a reasonably sized cellar. As she reached the end of the ladder, Bela had to admit to being impressed at its contents. The room might have been small, but it was filled with all kinds of material, one wall cover in photographs and the rest of the walls covered by various bookcases stacked to the brim with books, to the point that some of the cases had books on top of them, along with another small collection of books lying on a desk in the middle of the room.

"Samuel and his family collected this over the years," Deanna explained, looking around it with a smile as she climbed down the ladder to join Bela. "I'm not sure where they got some of it from- some of it came from old family contacts and some of it's just some old journals written by other members of the family-, but it's pretty good; we used it when we were dealing with more complicated hunts, and it never let us down."

"You made a living as hunters?" Bela asked, looking curiously at Deanna.

"Actually, I worked as a substitute teacher when the opportunity came up," Deanna said with a smile. "Samuel had a dry-cleaning business that he used as an official source of funding, and since we made our own hours most of the time we could take things as they came and get back to people when the opportunity came up; one reason we hunted as a family was that it was easier for us to provide financial support for each other."

"Oh," Bela said, nodding thoughtfully at Deanna's words before she looked more curiously at her as another thought came to her. "Are there… will there be any more of your family around?"

"There are probably some distant nieces and nephews by marriage that I could contact, but I'm not going to get in touch with them unless I have to," Deanna said firmly.

"You aren't?" Bela asked, looking at her in surprise.

"They're Samuel's family, not mine," Deanna said, looking back at Bela with a slightly awkward expression as though she was uncomfortable with what they were discussing. "I mean, I know that family's important, but I was never really a relative of theirs directly; Samuel was a good husband and a good father, but he was a bit too… fanatical about that at times."

"You mean his whole 'I don't know you, so I don't trust you' attitude?" Bela asked, recalling how Samuel had refused to listen to her and Dean or allow them to stay even after they'd proven that they weren't just amateur hunters. "You disagreed?"

"I let you stay, didn't I?" Deanna replied with a smile. "Samuel had his way of doing things, and I went along with it for the most part, but you have to draw the line sometimes, and his attitude towards other hunters was one of them. I mean, the Campbells had a long-standing family tradition of hunting monsters- Samuel used to say Campbells were hacking off vampire heads on the _Mayflower_ -, but that didn't mean other people couldn't provide some insight…"

"Well," Bela said, smiling slightly at Deanna, "if it helps, Dean and Sam are fairly selective about who they work with, but they try and give other hunters a chance, even if it goes wrong sometimes."

"Goes wrong?" Deanna repeated curiously.

"There was this one hunter, Gordon Walker…" Bela began, before she stopped herself; that was _definitely_ one story Dean would prefer to tell her himself, if he ever did. "Well, there was a vampire hunt or two that didn't go according to plan because he thought he knew best and your grandsons disagreed; you'll have to ask them if you want to know more."

"Of course," Deanna said, nodding at Bela in understanding.

"So," Bela said, looking around the room, deciding to get their current conversation back to something they could both talk about, "where's that journal talking about angels that you told me about?"

Castiel seemed to be all right so far, but considering their limited experience of angels to date- after all, as she recalled from various texts, Lucifer had been an angel before he created the first demons, so it wasn't like they were perfect just because they were angels-, Bela would feel better dealing with them in the long term if she had some idea of what they _couldn't_ do as well as what they _could_ do…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone wondering, the building Deanna's taken Bela to is indeed the Campbell Compound that Samuel used as a base after his resurrection in Season Six; I'm assuming that it fell into disuse after Samuel's original death in 1973 and he spent some time cleaning it up during the year that he was hunting with Sam and the other Campbells before Dean showed up


	12. First Blood in Hell

"Hold on a minute," Bela said, unable to stop herself from laughing at the image Sam had just described to her. "You're saying that Dean Winchester screamed when a _cat_ jumped out of a locker?"

" _Pretty much, yeah_ ," Sam replied, chuckling slightly before he gained control of himself. " _Sorry about that; I know that I have to figure out the cure for this before it kills him, but… well, if you can't laugh in this job, what can you do_?"

"True," Bela said, smiling at the thought of Dean Winchester having that kind of reaction to such a harmless creature before she became more serious. "Well… let me know if you need anything we can provide."

" _I've got Bobby looking already, so don't… feel the need to go out of your way or anything_ …" Sam said, his tone becoming more awkward as he spoke. Bela guessed that he wasn't that comfortable telling her that much, but she wasn't kidding herself that Sam was calling her because he trusted her himself; no matter what he was sharing with her, it was still only immediate matters rather than anything long-term that could be used against them even theoretically.

Still, the fact that Dean had been comfortable leaving their grandmother in her company had apparently done a fair amount to improve Bela's standing in Sam's eyes, considering that he was at least talking to her…

"If I have the time, I'll let you know; Deanna and I are… rather busy at the moment," Bela said, before she hung up and sighed reflectively.

Even if she was getting away from the thieving side of things, she wasn't that comfortable about the idea of going back to hunting full-time; even the most straightforward case could become complicated very quickly, as the Winchesters' current hunt proved. From what Sam had told her, the case had started out as an apparently simple one involving three people dying under near-identical circumstances involving them suffering from apparent panic attacks prior to their deaths, but the subsequent investigation had revealed that they were dealing with a ghost sickness that inspired fear in its victims, with Dean having been infected by the disease after he was exposed to the subject's blood as he shared a similar personality type to the other victims. Sam was working on identifying the ghost that could be causing this, but that still left him with the issue of keeping Dean calm until he knew what he was dealing with.

As for Bela, the thing that surprised her most about the time she was spending with Deanna was how much she was just enjoying the woman's company; even after seeing some of the artefacts that the Campbells had collected, Bela had only occasionally found herself assessing their potential worth, and even that was only because she'd spent so long making a living that way rather than any actual desire to sell them. Deanna had recovered an old sword that had once belonged to Samuel- apparently he'd left it in the compound after a particularly bloody hunt a week or so before she and Dean arrived in the past and never gotten around to reclaiming it-, but they were still taking their time to get through everything in the compound; Deanna had even mentioned a book containing a cure for vampirism that would definitely be useful. She'd even taken to having a couple of brief conversations on the phone with Sam or Dean depending on who was available- although she still used an old phone that was in the compound rather than a more modern version; Bela guessed that she was trying to hang on to home comforts-, but those conversations had so far just consisted of her asking how they were and what they'd recently been hunting rather than anything more emotionally involved.

Progress in their relationship might be gradual, but Bela had faith that they were making progress; Deanna was really managing to settle in to her new time rather well, she was starting to open up to her remaining family, and the books were rather interesting.

Quite frankly, Bela was amazed at how much material the Campbells had gathered over the years; there were even a couple of journals talking about angels, even if the information in question was limited to some theoretical observations about strange sigils- referred to as Enochian in some texts; she thought that was meant to be the language of the angels, but this wasn't something she'd studied often- that were somehow able to ward the angels away, and literally nothing was written about how to kill them…

* * *

As Bela sat at her makeshift desk the following morning, she couldn't believe that things had become so bad when they actually knew what they were looking for. Sam had called the previous night to reveal that they'd identified the ghost as a former employee of the local lumber mill who'd been killed because he'd been blamed for the death of the wife of the first victim, and had apparently returned to exact his revenge on his killers. Unfortunately, the circumstances of his death meant that they couldn't just salt and burn his remains- apparently he'd been dragged behind a car because his killers believed that he'd been responsible for the death of someone's wife, so some of his parts would be scattered across the road-, so Sam and Bobby were following up another lead while Dean stayed in his room, but they all knew that they only had so much time before Dean's fear-illness completed its course. Deanna was searching through the compound's library archives for anything that might be relevant, while Bela was reviewing some of the texts Deanna had discovered to confirm their use one way or the other, but Bela knew that they only had so much time before Dean died again.  
  
A part of her had thought about praying to Castiel for assistance, but considering their lack of knowledge about angels- Deanna's books had only provided possible information rather than anything verifiably accurate-, Bela wasn't sure if Castiel would appreciate that; even without his threat to put Dean back in Hell if he defied Castiel too often, considering how long it had taken Castiel to get Dean out of Hell last time, she didn't want to think about what would happen if Dean had to go back.  
  
What she remembered of Hell might still be vague, but it was enough for her to know that she wouldn't be able to cope if they went back; the possibility of reliving those memories was something she didn't want to even think about unless she had to…  
  
The sound of a ringing phone drove her away from her morbid thoughts, picking up her cell and pushing her texts to the side.  
  
"Hello?" she said. "Who is this?"  
  
" _Bela_?" a voice said on the other end of the line.  
  
"Dean?" Bela said, recognising the voice immediately but wondering what this was about; she doubted he was cured of the ghost sickness yet, which raised some questions about what he was doing here. "What-?"  
  
" _What do you remember about Hell_?" Dean asked, his tone showing a panicked edge that she couldn't recall Dean ever showing in their past encounters; even when they'd been trapped in the past, he'd always seemed so in control…  
  
"I… I don't remember _anything_ ," Bela said automatically, the familiar memory of pain and torment flashing through her mind before she pushed it back; she didn't _want_ to think about that. "Why-?"  
  
" _I remember it_ ," Dean said, his voice becoming increasingly more panicked as he spoke, sounding less like the Dean Winchester she was starting to know with every word. " _You were there and I was there and I don't- God, I can't go back there, but I remember everything and it's never going to get better, and I didn't deserve to escape, I just keep remembering what I did to you_ -"  
  
"What you did to me?" Bela repeated, confused at this turn in the conversation. "Dean, what-?"

* * *

He _was there._  
  
 _She'd known that she'd see him eventually- if there was one thing you could count on from Hell, it was that they'd make sure you'd see people you knew sooner rather than later-, but it was still a shock to see_ him _there._  
  
" _Dean?" she said, looking at him in shock; for all that she'd mockingly told him he was two steps removed from being a serial killer, she'd never seriously thought of him as someone who'd go to_ Hell _. "What are-?"_  
  
" _You…" Dean said grimly, glaring at her with a half-crazed, near-feral look that she almost couldn't associate with Dean Winchester; even when she'd considered all hunters idiots, she'd seen enough of Dean to believe that he'd never be capable of sinking to this level. "All that crap you pulled… if you'd done nothing, we could have_ saved _your skanky ass; that mean nothing to you?"_  
  
" _I didn't-" Bela began automatically, only to be cut off with a slap._  
  
" _That's just it; you_ didn't _," the eldest Winchester said, glaring at her with a stare that felt like it would burn her if she wasn't feeling so warm already. "It's all about the short-term, isn't it? You gave up on finding a way out of the deal to keep yourself warm and comfy back up top, no matter who else got hurt in the process, and then take away the best weapon we had, potentially condemning who-knows-how many people to death because we can't just shoot the damn thing and be done with it, all because_ you _thought that your_ own _fucking deal was more important than_ everyone else _, and it didn't even goddamn_ work _."_  
  
" _I was-" Bela began, not sure what she could say but feeling the urge to try something._  
  
" _You were thinking about_ yourself _," Dean spat, staring contemptuously at her._  
  
" _Dean…" Bela said, staring desperately at him- no matter how often she endured this pain, she'd_ never _get used to it-, "please, don't do this; you're not a_ torturer _-"_  
  
" _Told me back on Earth I'm just 'two steps away from being a serial killer', right?" he said, looking at her with a twisted smirk. "Couldn't do it up there; why not do it down here?"_  
  
 _For a moment, as the scalpel came towards her, Bela thought that he wouldn't do it, that he'd cut her bonds and they could start running…_  
  
 _Then the blade bit into the skin between her breasts, and Bela screamed as her chest was_ pulled _open and something taken out…_

* * *

_Oh God_ … Bela thought, as her mind returned to the present.  
  
 _Dean_ had _tortured_ her while they were in Hell…  
  
 _NO_! Bela thought, pushing that thought aside before it could take route.  
  
She didn't know how long she'd been down there by that point, except that it had been a lot; even if Dean had only gone to Hell a few weeks after her, what she was remembering was covering too long a period of time for it to be months, even if she assumed that the pain had made everything blur over time…  
  
Whatever had happened to her down there, it would have to have been worse for Dean, considering that he had so many demons after him for what he did to them up on Earth; subjected to the worst that Hell had to offer, it was no wonder that he'd broken.  
  
"Dean," she began, her free hand holding tightly on to the desk as she tried to keep control of her reaction, praying that her voice could make it through his now-whispered rants, "you have to focus; whatever you did there, it wasn't-"  
  
" _Sheriff_?" Dean's voice said, sounding more distant from the phone than it had been earlier, as though he'd put it down to talk to someone (Had she heard a door opening earlier?). " _What are you doing_?"  
  
" _Why are you looking into Luther Garland's death_?" an unfamiliar voice said; Bela had to strain to hear what the speakers were saying, but she'd honed her senses over the years, and the lack of background noise at the other end made it easier to hear what they were saying.  
  
" _Hey, hey_ ," Dean said, sounding like he was trying to calm the other man despite his own terror obvious in his voice. " _You're- you're sick._ _You're sick. You're sick, all right? Just- just like me, okay? You got to relax_."  
  
" _Frank O'Brien was my friend_ ," the other voice that was apparently the sheriff said, after a faint sound that suggested to Bela that someone had hit something; Bela just hoped that, if it had been Dean, he wasn't too badly injured or intimidated by what had just happened. " _So he made a mistake. So I didn't bust him. So what? And you're gonna bring me down over that?! No, sir_!"  
  
As the sound of a fight faintly reached the phone, ranging from various punches, Bela had no idea what to do; she didn't have any immediate access to a second phone, so she couldn't call Sam or someone to warn him that Dean was in trouble even if it would have done any good, but she couldn't hang up the phone and leave Dean…  
  
After the sound of what felt like glass breaking, the sounds of the fight ceased as the sheriff started screaming about getting away from him, Dean begging him to calm down, before silence filled the room, which Bela could only hope indicated that the sheriff had stopped even if Dean was still all right (She'd think about why she was so invested in Dean's survival herself later).  
  
"Dean?" she said after a moment's silence, her voice as loud as she could make it, in case he hadn't picked up the phone yet. "Are you all right?"  
  
She paused and listened once again, trying to hear any sign of life on the other end, but all she could pick out was a faint sound that could have been anything from someone sitting on the bed where the phone was lying to someone quietly opening the door to escape answering questions about a dead body; if both people had been a victim of that 'fear curse', there was no telling how the survivor of that kind of fight would react to the death of the other…  
  
" _No_!" Dean's voice suddenly yelled. " _No_!"  
  
"Dean?" Bela said, grateful for this new proof of life but anxious about his current state; he sounded like he was talking to someone, but she couldn't hear anyone else responding to him. "What's wrong? Can you hear me? Are you still there?"  
  
" _You- you're not real_!" Dean protested, which at least clarified that he was probably hallucinating but didn't help her work out how to get through to him, since he evidently hadn't heard her.  
  
"What's wrong, Dean?" Bela asked, her mind scrambling for something to say that might help. "Focus on my voice; whatever you're seeing, it's not real!"  
  
" _You are not real_ ," Dean said; Bela would have felt better about that confirmation if she had any faith in the thought that Dean could hear her.  
  
"Yes!" she yelled; even if he wasn't that close to the phone, maybe she could help him focus on the reality of it even if he was too far away to hear her over the phone. "It's not real, Dean; you're safe-!"  
  
" _Why me_?" Dean said suddenly. " _Why'd I get infected_?"  
  
"What?" Bela said, puzzled at this new turn of events; she knew that she didn't know the full story, but why was that question so important to Dean?  
  
She vaguely heard Dean say something, but it didn't sound like he was actually speaking at this point; all she could hear was the older hunter screaming and babbling, clearly terrified at something that only he could see and hear, too terrified to hear anything she might try to say to him even if she had been there to talk to him in person…  
  
"Dean, don't do this," she said; even she wasn't sure why she was suddenly so concerned about the fate of the man who'd tortured her in Hell, but she couldn't ignore her immediate reaction. "Hold it together, Dean; you got out of Hell, and you can get out of _this_ , you can't just give up now…"  
  
" _NO_!" Dean yelled suddenly, sounding nearly hysterical with fear.  
  
"Damnit!" Bela said, slamming the phone down and standing up to glare at the ceiling; since talking to Dean apparently wasn't working, she was going to have to try something else. "Castiel, if you're listening to me, get to Dean _right now_ ; he's going to _die_ if you don't do something!"  
  
Calling an angel for help wouldn't normally have been Bela's first option, but even if it was desperate, she couldn't just sit around do nothing when Dean was screaming like this-  
  
As the other end of the phone fell silent, Bela ceased her calls for Castiel, unable to do anything more than sit and wait for some kind of response on the other end of the line.  
  
If the cries had stopped because Dean was over the illness, then there was no reason for her to call for the angel again, and if Dean didn't respond soon…  
  
" _Bela_?" Dean's voice said, sounding far calmer than he had been earlier. " _You… you still there_?"  
  
"Yes," Bela said, nodding in response; she couldn't even explain to herself why she was so relieved to hear Dean speak again, but at least he was still alive. "I'm… I'm here… Are you all right?"  
  
"' _M good_ ," Dean said, taking a deep breath before he spoke again. " _You… you remember, huh_?"  
  
"Bits and pieces," Bela said, pausing for a moment before she finished her sentence; they weren't going to get anywhere avoiding this particular topic. "But I _do_ remember what you did to me."  
  
" _Oh God_ -" Dean began.  
  
"And it doesn't matter," Bela said.  
  
It was only when she said those four words that she realised that she meant them.  
  
What Dean had done to her was terrifying and painful even when she thought about it, but it was still something that had only taken place under circumstances that could only be described as exceptional, to say nothing of it being relatively minor after everything else she'd endured in Hell.  
  
Dean torturing her had been particularly personal, but it had been one moment of personal torment among several more detailed attacks from other… residents; she wasn't going to hold it against him forever.  
  
They were out of Hell now; whatever had happened then, the fact that they weren't there any more was all that mattered in the present.  
  
"It doesn't matter," she said again, wanting to ensure that Dean understood what she was saying to him. "After everything you've done to them here, the demons would have _wanted_ you to break, Dean; nobody could endure that kind of… attention… and endure it forever if there was an alternative."  
  
" _But I should've…_ " Dean began, his voice breaking.  
  
"It's not like most of the people down there wouldn't have deserved it, Dean," Bela said, trying to sound more jocular about it than she felt; think about it as having happened to someone else, and she could get through it all. "We were in _Hell_ , Dean; any opportunity not to be the victim, right?"  
  
" _It doesn't make up for it_ ," Dean said grimly. " _You didn't deserve that… Hell,_ nobody _deserves the shit I remember doing_ …"  
  
He terminated the call before Bela could think of anything she could say in response, leaving her staring awkwardly at the phone for a moment before she put it down, lost in the memory of what she'd just remembered.  
  
She'd remembered directly was unpleasant, but it was what _else_ she had just remembered that was most important right now.  
  
If Dean was going to do whatever task Castiel had rescued them to accomplish, he was going to need every weapon he could get his hands on… which meant that he was going to need the strongest weapon they'd ever encountered.  
  
She hadn't thought about it before now, but that flashback had reminded her of what she had done to the Winchesters, which meant that she had been reminded of who she needed to get in touch with…  
  
Her mind made up, she stood up and headed for the archives, looking around the assorted weapons and books for a few moments before she finally noticed the only other person currently in this compound.  
  
"Deanna?" she said, looking curiously at the other woman, who was currently sitting by a bookshelf reading. "Do we have anything here for… interrogating demons?"  
  
"Interrogating demons?" Deanna said, looking back at her in surprise. "Well, we have a couple of rooms with devil's traps in them, along with the usual precautions; holy water, salt, palo santo stakes… why do you ask?"  
  
"Because I know of a demon who has something that we need, and I want to make him give it back," Bela said, looking grimly at Deanna.  
  
What she was attempting might be a gamble, but it was a gamble that she was going to take; it was the best method of improving Dean's chances that she could think of…


	13. Taking Back the Gun

As she stood in the heart of the Campbell compound's 'demon containment' room, Bela gave herself one last chance to talk herself out of this; things hadn't exactly gone well when she'd met this man the last time they'd been in the same room as each other, and since then she'd done the impossible and managed to get out of a deal with him…

All things considered, there were so many reasons _not_ to do this, Bela was surprised that she hadn't talked herself out of it. Maybe it was the fact that Dean had sounded so scared and ashamed when he'd remembered what he'd done to her in Hell, maybe it was her own determination to prove to all concerned that she didn't deserve to go back to Hell, or maybe it was the fact that an angel had seen something in her worth saving when nobody else had…

Whatever was responsible for driving her to do this, she'd made her choice, and she was going to stick with it; if she was going to prove she didn't deserve to go back to Hell, she had to take some risks. This plan might be risky, but apparently the Campbells had a few notes about how to summon particular demons, and they'd gathered virtually everything needed if you wanted to torture a demon without simply killing the meatsuit; holy water, palo santo wood, salt loaded into shotguns and scattered around the Devil's Trap…

It wasn't a perfect plan, but Bela was satisfied that they'd done everything they could to keep their chosen target contained, and she recalled the ritual she'd used to talk with him about her deal in the past; with all the necessary tools for the ritual assembled, all they could do now was summon him and hope that their protections would be enough.

"Do it," she said, nodding grimly at Deanna (She was very grateful for the older hunter's presence; Deanna might be ignorant of some details of her past, but she was shaping up to be a good friend as well as a valuable ally).

With that statement, Deanna raised the book and began to chant, her gaze fixed on the Devil's Trap carved on the floor before them. Bela's current concern was only slightly alleviated by the fact that the Trap had been forged in iron rather than the standard paint job; it might be an untested method of trapping a demon, but with her knowledge of demonology, she was fairly sure that this would actually be more effective than the painted traps she was familiar with.

After a few moments of waiting, things seemed to blur in front of her and then the familiar suited, bearded, form of Crowley appeared in the Devil's Trap before her, dressed in his usual suits with his hands behind his back.

"Hello, Bela," the man said, smiling nonchalantly at her.

"Crowley," Bela said, nodding back at him; in a situation like this, showing fear was the last thing she should do.

"You're looking well," Crowley said, still grinning at her as though he was the one in control. "Aside from that little mark on your shoulder, of course…"

"Minor detail," Bela said, shrugging slightly as she ignored the slight itch where Castiel's handprint made contact with her shirt; she might have her suspicions about what that mark was doing to her, but this wasn't the time to talk about them. "I take it business is still going well?"

"It's like any business, really; things come and go," Crowley clarified, still smiling at her before his eyes narrowed. "Talking of which, considering our previous contact, I doubt you summoned me for a chat; what can I do for you?"

"The Colt," Bela said, looking firmly at him (If he wasn't going to bring up the contract she'd escaped, she certainly wasn't going to do it). "I want it back."

For a moment, Crowley chuckled at that statement, but the grin faded as he looked at her more closely.

"You're serious about that, aren't you?" he said, raising his eyebrow in surprise.

"You know me, Crowley; I'm always serious," Bela said, smiling slightly at him before her eyes narrowed in resolution as she reached over to the nearby table and picked up the wooden Palo Santo dagger she'd already chosen as her weapon for this particular confrontation. "And I'm also _quite_ serious about what we'll do to you if you don't give it to me."

"Talking of things being serious," Crowley said, looking over at Deanna with a quizzical expression on his face, as though he'd only just registered that she was there, "this woman here is…?"

"Who I am isn't your concern," Deanna said, looking resolutely at Crowley. "What you need to know is that I'm the woman armed with everything I need to make your stay in that trap _very_ unpleasant unless you give us what we need."

"Which is… this, right?" Crowley said, reaching into his pocket and removing the distinctive gun that Bela had tried to use for her own ends, holding it as though ready to fire while looking thoughtfully at her. "This is what it's all about…"

"Yes," Bela said, looking firmly at Crowley while trying not to panic at the thought of that weapon in his hands; the Devil's Trap might prevent Crowley from using his powers, but that didn't mean it would stop him from shooting her…

To her surprise, Crowley deliberately opened the Colt, tilted it in his hand, and tipped the bullets out of the gun, tossing the six bullets outside the confines of the Trap.

"We need to talk," Crowley said, looking solemnly at them even as he kept hold of the Colt.

"Pardon?" Bela said, looking at the demon in surprise, Deanna walking over to pick up the discarded bullets even as she kept her eyes fixed on the demon.

"Do you know how deep I could have buried this thing?" Crowley said, indicating the gun with a pointed stare and a slight smile as he snapped it back together. "I kept it around in case I needed it, but if you're looking for it, makes it all the better; you can do what needs doing with this thing while I stand back and let it happen."

"Uh… you _do_ know why we want it, right?" Deanna asked, looking at Crowley in confusion.

"Prevent the Seals from breaking and keep Lucifer stuck in his box, right?" Crowley said, smiling slightly at the older woman. "'Course I know; that's not something either side can keep secret, after all."

"And you're… you say you want to _help_ us do that?" Bela asked, looking at him in confusion; she'd been prepared to resort to torture to try and get the gun out of Crowley- even if it wouldn't have been easy to do anything to someone who lived in Hell-, but she hadn't expected him to just _give_ it to her like that. "Why would you want Lucifer dead? I thought he was… well, isn't he your 'father'?"

"It's called 'survival'," Crowley explained, looking patiently at her, his earlier smug satisfaction replaced by a practical glare. "You haven't met him yet, so I'm going to spell this out; he's an _angel_ , remember?"

"Fallen angel, from what I recall-" Bela began to point out.

"Still one of them where it counts; all the powers and limitations, with an ego to match," Crowley interjected before he continued speaking. "Point is, he's an angel famous for his hatred of humanity; to him, you're just filthy bags of pus that pissed him off when Daddy asked him to like you more than the big man. If he thinks that poorly of you, what can he think about us?"

"But… if he _created_ you-" Deanna began, even as she was clearly curious about what they were hearing.

"To him, we're just servants," Crowley spat, looking indignantly at her. "Cannon fodder. If Lucifer manages to exterminate humankind, we're next."

"I have to admit, he makes a good point," Deanna said, nodding in acknowledgement of Crowley's point after exchanging a brief glance with Bela. "So… you're letting us have the Colt… so that we can maintain the status quo?"

"Exactly!" Crowley said firmly. "I'm in sales, dammit; I _like_ the way things are, without introducing the halo brigade all over again! So what do you say you take this thing, use it to ice the higher-ups, and we all get back to simpler times?"

"Just two things," Bela said, looking pointedly at the Colt. "What do we do about ammunition once those six are gone?"

"Simple enough," Crowley said, smiling slightly as he reached into another pocket and pulled out a small box that he tossed to Bela, who caught it and opened it to reveal a new set of bullets, at least three times more than the ones already lying on the floor. "Took a while to find the right sigils to carve on the bullets, and they need a few drops of demon blood to get the job done, but overall they'll keep doing what that gun's famous for. What's the other thing?"

"Isn't this… signing your own death warrant?" Bela asked, looking at the demon in confusion. "I mean, if the other demons find out what you just did…"

"Number one, he's going to wipe us all out anyway," Crowley said firmly. "Two, before we part ways, I was thinking that you could stick me with a few things to give the impression I put up a fight; I create the story that you took it from me under duress, and all's good. And three, how about you don't miss when using that thing, OK?"

"Sounds fair," Bela said, exchanging a brief glance with Deanna before she looked at Crowley as she picked up a dagger made of palo santo wood. "So, talking of duress, shall I assume it's acceptable for me to stab you with this?"

"Give it a convincing wound, eh?" Crowley said, smiling at her in understanding before his eyes narrowed as he slipped the gun back into his pocket. "Just so long as you understand that, if you decide to kill me, you _aren't_ going to find that gun."

Bela didn't bother to point out that the gun was in his pocket; with a demon as powerful as Crowley, she had a feeling that they wouldn't get that gun back unless he wanted to give it to them, no matter it seemed to be.

As Bela drove the dagger into Crowley's chest, she tried not to show just how satisfied she was at the obvious pain on his face; she didn't want to do anything that might prompt him to back out of the deal. Withdrawing the blade from his chest, she stabbed him in the shoulder before withdrawing it once more and stepping back, looking grimly at him.

"That should be convincing enough, don't you think?" she said, smiling slightly at him. "Now then… the Colt?"

"Break Trap… then Colt…" Crowley said, glaring at her as he clutched his injured shoulder. Looking over at Deanna, Bela exchanged a brief nod with the woman as Deanna reached over to flick a switch causing parts of the trap to rise up on hinges, breaking the iron lines keeping Crowley contained.

"Thank you," Crowley said, wincing as he reached into his pocket and removed the Colt, tossing it to Bela before he vanished.

As she looked at the gun in her hands, Bela smiled in relief at the sight.

She might have lost it in a pointless attempt to get out of her original deal, but she'd managed to get it back and learn some interesting details about Lucifer's final plan for the world if the Seals were fully broken; all she had to do now was get it to the Winchesters…


	14. Ancient Hexes

In a strange way, Bela was actually starting to get a better idea of why Sam and Dean appreciated their lives. She missed the comfort of her old safehouses, but as she drove along the road towards the town where Sam and Dean currently were, she had to admit that there was something appealing about travelling around for so long, seeing America from the road in a way that so few people did…

She decided not to give that any more thought; she was going into a potentially dangerous situation with a trio of hunters with a bizarre familial connection, this wasn't the time to reflect on the opportunities presented by her current lifestyle.

With the Colt now in her possession once again, she had to admit that she was almost looking forward to seeing what Sam and Dean were up to. When she and Deanna had come out of the Devil's Trap room after releasing Crowley, Bela had found a message on the answering machine revealing that Sam and Dean were investigating the death of a man named Luke Wallace in a small town; apparently, Luke Wallace had been found dead as a result of eating candy containing razor blades. Sam was fairly sure that they were only dealing with a witch rather than a demon, but considering how demons and witches could collaborate, along with the relatively close proximity of Halloween, it seemed like as good an opportunity as any to return the Colt to the Winchesters and give Deanna a chance to stretch her legs in every sense of the phrase.

"Some things never change," Deanna said, smiling as the car drove through the town streets, looking wistfully at the groups of children walking along the sidewalks, some dressed in costumes already.

"Did you… I mean, your daughter…?" Bela began, trailing off as she suddenly found herself unsure what she was asking; from what Deanna had told her, she had ended up in the hunting lifestyle after Samuel saved her life, so she'd probably celebrated Halloween as a child, but how would a family of hunters have regarded it?

"We allowed it sometimes," Deanna said with a smile. "Samuel preferred to focus on his hunts, but I enjoyed those moments when we could give Mary some kind of normal life; after all, where's the point in going to all this effort to protect other people if we're not going to allow her the chance to experience what we're trying to protect?"

"Good philosophy," Bela said with a smile. "When did you tell her about it, anyway?"

"When she was around… ten, I think," Deanna said with a smile at the memory. "I think she had some idea that things weren't right at first- it's hard to explain how a dry-cleaner ends up breaking his arm on a business trip, and we gave her a few odd warnings when hunts came too close to home, after all- but that was the first time we definitely told her that monsters were real."

"Having a home base probably helped that, I assume," Bela said, nodding reflectively at that news; most hunters she knew tended to remain on the move a lot- Bobby being one of the few exceptions- but the Campbells staying in one place would certainly make it easier for them to give Mary a life outside of hunting, no matter how hard it might be for her to relate to some of her peers.

"Yes, it did," Deanna said, before she glanced between the street-sign and a note in her hands and smiled. "Down this street; that should be where their hotel is."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Bela turned the car into the indicated street, continuing along it for a while until she found herself in front of the hotel that the Winchesters had identified as their current residence. As she pulled up into the parking lot, Bela immediately headed for the slot right beside the distinctive black form of the Impala, stopping the car and getting out as she checked that the Colt was still in her pocket. With Deanna behind her, she walked up to the Winchesters' room, knocking politely on the door and waiting for a moment until Dean opened the door.

"Wh- Bela?" he said, looking at her in surprise, his eyes widening further when he saw Deanna standing behind her.

"Surprised?" Bela said, smiling at him as she and Deanna walked into the room, Deanna smiling over at Sam as he looked up at the new arrivals. "We got your message about this hunt, and it occurred to me that you might need a bit more than your usual arsenal if you're going to deal with the seals."

"So?" Sam asked, looking at her inquiringly.

"So," Bela said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out the gun that had caused her such trouble with the Winchesters, "I thought you might like this."

Dean blinked.

"Wh- the _Colt_?" he said, staring at the weapon in surprise for a moment before he glared at Bela. "Hold on; you said-"

"That it was long gone with the buyer?" Bela said, smiling at him. "That _was_ true, but I managed to… make contact with the buyer and get him to change his mind."

"How?" Sam asked, looking at her in surprise. "I mean, Lilith wouldn't-"

"It wasn't Lilith," Bela said, hoping that directness could allow her to get past the initial hostility she was bound to receive once she revealed this particular news. "It was the head of the crossroad demons; he's known as Crowley."

"Uh… I'm sorry; you got this gun back from the _head of the crossroad demons_?" Dean said, his glare replaced by shock at this unexpected news. "What happened to-?"

"I didn't make a deal for it; he just… gave it to me," Bela said, shrugging slightly as Dean looked sceptically at her; she had expected that he'd doubt her word, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt to feel as though she'd lost what little trust she'd managed to gain. "I mean, we had to torture him a bit to make it look convincing, but-"

"OK, whether or not it was a deal isn't important right now; what _is_ important is clarifying why a demon would give you the Colt?" Sam asked suspiciously. "Doesn't he know what we're trying to do?"

"He does," Deanna put in. "That's why he did it."

"Uh… sorry, I'm missing something here," Sam said, looking over at his grandmother in confusion. "You're saying… a _demon_ wants us to stop the seals being broken?"

"His explanation made sense," Deanna replied.

"What was it?" Dean asked, joining Sam in looking pointedly at their grandmother.

"Basically, once Lucifer gets out and destroys humanity as proof that his father failed when creating us, he's going to destroy the demons as further flawed creations," Bela explained. "He asked us to give him a few convincing wounds to ensure that he could claim he'd been forced into giving it up, but his fundamental goal was clear; he wants us to keep the Seals unbroken and maintain the status quo."

"Huh," Dean said, looking sceptically at the gun for a moment, before he shrugged and slipped it into the pocket of his own jacket as he turned back to Bela, clearly deciding to table that discussion for the moment. "Got bullets?"

"Naturally," Bela said, tossing him the box of ammunition before she looked more curiously at him. "So, now that you've got that, what are we looking into?"

"We?" Dean said. "You-"

"It's a witch," Sam interjected, indicating the spread-out remains of a small hex-bag and indicating the object's contents to the two women. "Goldthread, an herb that's been extinct for two hundred years. This silver thing is Celtic, and I don't mean some new age knock-off; it looks like the real deal, like six-hundred-years-old real. We even have the century-old metacarpal bone of a newborn baby here"

"Yeah, that's disgusting," Dean said grimly.

"You're thinking a witch?" Deanna asked.

"It would have to be a pretty powerful one to pull off something like this," Sam noted. "More juice than we've ever dealt with, that's for sure."

"And older than anything I encountered with your grandfather," Deanna noted, solemnly studying the contents before them for a moment. "Do you have any suspects?"

"Not yet," Dean said grimly. "I've been over the victim's history; guy was so vanilla, he makes vanilla seem spicy. We just heard something about another case that we were going to check out-"

"Good," Bela said, smiling at him as she made an impulsive decision. "Let me just get changed, and-"

"Changed?" Dean repeated, looking at her in surprise.

"Well, I don't exactly look very 'FBI' like this, do I?" Bela said, indicating her current casual attire. "I've had a few suits in storage in case something came up; just let me get them-"

"Hold on; what makes you think you're coming with me?" Dean asked, surprise being replaced by a pointed stare as he looked at her. "Sam and I can handle this-"

"But you don't have to do it alone, Dean," Deanna said, looking sincerely at her grandson. "I know it's probably hard for you to adjust- Hell, _I'm_ still getting used to all this- but we're all here now, so we have to focus on what matters, and what matters is using everything we have to put those… _things_ down before they hurt any more innocent people."

Looking over at his grandmother, Dean stared thoughtfully at her for a moment before a tentative smile began to spread across his face.

"Good point," he said, before he looked over at Sam. "So, you up for reading with Grandma?"

* * *

Not wanting to give Dean a chance to change his mind, Bela had quickly changed into her suit jacket and skirt in the bathroom of the Winchesters' current motel room before joining him in the Impala to head to the latest crime scene. In this case, the location was a Halloween party where a girl bobbing for apples had ended up drowning in water that apparently became boiling hot while her head was stuck in it. As she and Dean entered the basement where the party had been held, she noted that forensics techs were already looking over what was almost certainly the tub in question, while a police officer talked to a girl in a stereotypical 'slutty cheerleader' outfit; judging by what Bela heard as she walked down, the girl had been a friend of the victim.  
  
"I'll take the girl," Bela said, looking pointedly at Dean for a moment before she walked over to the officer and the girl.  
  
"Who-?" the officer said, looking at her in confusion.  
  
"Agent Lucy Murray," Bela said, showing her FBI pass to the man with a casual smile. "I just have a couple of questions that this young woman may be able to help me with."  
  
"Uh… sure," the officer said, stepping back to allow Bela to talk to the girl.  
  
"This might seem unorthodox, but I have to ask," Bela said, briefly glancing over at where Dean was checking the sofa for hex bags before focusing her attention on the girl, "did your friend know a man named Luke Wallace?"  
  
"Uh… who's Luke Wallace?" the girl asked.  
  
"He's connected to another case; that's all I'm at liberty to disclose at this time," Bela said, nodding briefly at the girl before movement in Dean's direction prompted her to look up, the older hunter smiling as he held up a hex bag from beneath the sofa.  
  
"I don't know who that is," the girl replied, shrugging slightly apologetically at Bela.  
  
"And no idea why anyone would… have anything against your friend?" Bela asked (She was never that good at this part of hunting; she understood adults so much better than children who'd never experienced even a fraction of what she'd had to endure…).  
  
The girl's negative reply at least gave Bela a reason to cut that conversation short, but it also left her with nothing else to go on in the current hunt; confirming where not to look might be useful, but she'd still prefer to know where she might start looking…

* * *

"So," Dean said, looking at Sam and Deanna in surprise after he and Bela had returned from the latest crime scene, "you're thinking that these vics _weren't_ targeted for personal reasons?"  
  
"No," Deanna confirmed with a smile, tapping a book on the table in front of her. "While Sam and I were going over possible reasons for targeting these victims in this manner, I found reference to a particular ritual that can only be performed in the three days leading up to midnight of the final day of the final harvest."  
  
"Which is today, correct?" Bela asked.  
  
"Precisely," Deanna said, nodding at the other woman. "According to the book, three blood sacrifices over that period will culminate in the practitioner summoning the demon Samhain to this plane."  
  
"Who?" Dean asked.  
  
"The demon of Halloween," Bela said, her mind flashing back to some of her early research into demon mythology when she was originally trying to determine the nature of her deal. "According to the Celts, the veil between the realms of the living and the dead were at their thinnest on October 31st, which would traditionally allow Samhain to freely walk the world."  
  
"Exactly," Deanna said. "People wore masks to hide from him, left out sweets to appease him, and carved faces into pumpkins to worship him; he was exorcised centuries ago, but the traditions remained even after people stopped believing in the reason for them."  
  
"OK," Dean said, nodding in understanding. "So, even though it's been kiddie-fied over the years, we're thinking some witch wants to raise Samhain and take back the night?"  
  
"Basically, yes," Deanna said, nodding back at her oldest grandson. "On the bright side, this ritual can only be performed every six hundred years, but unfortunately the time for the next potential opening is this year, so if we can't find the witch or the third sacrifice before tomorrow night…"  
  
"We've got a problem," Dean said grimly, picking up the book and glancing at the sketches within it. "That's a lot of death and destruction for one demon."  
  
"That's part of the legend, unfortunately," Sam put in. "Once he's raised, Samhain can raise other kinds of evil; the book suggests everything from ghosts and zombies to start with, but by the end of the night we'd have everything we've ever hunted all gathered in one place."  
  
Bela definitely didn't like the sound of that; she'd come here expecting a relatively simple hunt to give her and Deanna a chance to get back in the game, and now they were dealing with something _this_ big?  
  
"I suppose we haven't got any ideas why our witch targeted these two?" Sam asked.  
  
"A teenage girl and a grown man who doesn't work at the school?" Dean said, shaking his head. "Nothing so far."  
  
"Didn't Mr Wallace have a young son?" Deanna asked.  
  
"Yeah, so?" Dean said, looking over at his grandmother.  
  
"Have you considered asking who he and his wife hired as a babysitter?" Deanna pointed out.  
  
Noting the stares she was attracting after that question, Deanna looked suddenly awkward. "Oh, has babysitting stopped being a thing now? Your mother used to do it in her later years of school- she liked spending time with children-"  
  
"No, it's still a thing, it's just…" Sam said, shaking his head as he looked over at Dean. "How did we not think of that?"  
  
"Sometimes you miss the obvious," Bela said, although her tone made it clear that she was including herself among the people who missed the obvious. "A teenage girl _would_ have access to both locations; the only thing we need to work out now is which girl…"  
  
"I've got a list of people who were attending that party from the cop's witness statements; just give me a few moments…" Sam said, pulling his laptop over to him and rapidly tapping through a few files before he found what he was looking for. "Here we are; according to school records, one of the students at the party, Tracy, was recently suspended from school for a violent altercation with a teacher."  
  
"Something to work with, anyway," Dean said, glancing at the photograph accompanying the record Sam had pulled up with a smile. "So, we're dealing with a centuries-old witch posing as a teenage cheerleader, and we've got an address; how do we do this?"


	15. To Save a Seal

Whenever Dean thought about the different routines you encountered during a hunt, this was one of the most frustrating occurrences; when you knew who and what you were after, knew exactly what they wanted, but had no way of finding them to put them down. He and Sam had tracked down the teacher that Tracy had assaulted, but the guy hadn't been able to tell them anything more interesting than the fact that Tracy had disturbing tastes in art exploring various cryptic symbols and gory images of people being murdered.

It might provide further evidence that she was the witch they were looking for, but it didn't help them do anything to find her…

"Anything come up?" he asked, getting out of the Impala to look curiously at Bela and his grandmother as they walked over to join him and Sam; the two women had volunteered to grab some food while he and Sam followed up a few leads that might lead them to their current suspect, but he was holding on a frail hope that they might have stumbled across something by chance.

"Aside from kids asking for candy, nothing really interesting," Bela replied, sighing as she and Deanna picked out the bags of food. "You?"

"Ran down most of her friends and likely teen hangouts; both a bust," Dean confirmed. "It's like the bitch popped a broomstick…"

"She could be making the third sacrifice any time," Sam said grimly.

"Yes, thank you, Sam," Dean said, glaring at his brother as they began to walk up to their motel room, trying not to think about that issue; they still had time to find their opponent if they were quick about it…

It was only when Dean opened the door to their motel room and found Castiel standing in it, along with a tall dark-skinned man that he didn't recognise, that he re-evaluated what they were up against; if these guys were getting involved, things had to be bad…

"Who are you?" Sam yelled, drawing his gun as soon as he saw the new arrival.

"Sam, wait; that's Castiel!" Dean yelled, quickly deflecting his brother's attempts to aim his gun; bullets probably wouldn't kill the angel, but it wouldn't do to make him angry.

"The other guy, however, we _don't_ know," Bela put in, walking in after Sam and noticing the room's two new residents, waving at Deanna to stay out of the room before the older woman could go through the door herself; the angels probably knew that she was here already, but they'd prefer not to rub their faces in Deanna's presence in the present unless the halo brigade brought it up first.

"Hello, Sam," Castiel said, either not noticing or choosing not to comment on Bela's actions as he looked solemnly at the youngest Winchester.

"Oh my God…" Sam said, a slightly stunned smile on his face as he took in the angel. "I didn't mean to… sorry. It's an honour, really; I-I've heard a lot about you."

As Sam offered his right hand to Castiel, the angel looked at it for a moment as though trying to work out what he should do with it, until Sam moved the hand slightly in a prompting manner that helped Castiel realise that he was supposed to shake it.

"And I, you," the angel said, looking solemnly at Sam as he shook the offered hand. "Sam Winchester, the boy with the demon blood. Glad to see you've ceased your extracurricular activities."

"Let's keep it that way," the man at the window said.

"Yeah, OK, chuckles," Dean said, looking back at Castiel. "Who's your friend?"

"The raising of Samhain; have you stopped it?" Castiel asked, ignoring Dean's question.

"Why?" Dean asked; under other circumstances, he would probably have made a joke about the angel being abrupt, but the urgency in Castiel's tone suggested this wouldn't be a good time for that.

"Dean, have you located the witch?" Castiel said.

"Yes, we've located the witch," Dean replied.

"And is the witch dead?" Castiel said.

"Not yet, but we _do_ know who we're after-" Bela began.

"Apparently the witch knows who you are too," Castiel said, walking over to the table by the bed to pick up a small hex bag, which he displayed to the brothers. "This was inside the wall of your room. If we hadn't found it, surely one or both of you would be dead. Do you know where the witch is now?"

"We're… working on it," Bela said, after exchanging awkward glances with Sam and Dean.

"That's unfortunate," Castiel said, looking over at the other man, who was still staring out of the window.

"What do you care?" Dean asked.

"The raising of Samhain is one of the sixty-six seals," Castiel clarified.

"Ah," Bela said, nodding at the angel in understanding. "Well… that's something."

"Lucifer cannot rise," Castiel said firmly. "The breaking of the seal must be prevented at all costs."

"OK, great, we're all on board with that," Dean said, looking encouragingly at the angel. "So, now that you're here, why don't you tell us where the witch is, we'll gank her and everybody goes home?"

"We are not omniscient," Castiel said, the angel actually looking awkward as he made that confession. "This witch is very powerful, she's cloaked even to our methods."

"OK," Sam said. "Well, we already know who she is, so if we work together-"

"Enough of this," the other angel said.

"OK, who are you, and why should I care?" Dean said, glaring at the angel as he turned to look at the other three, revealing a tall, dark-skinned bald man with a firm stare.

"This is Uriel," Castiel said, looking at the three hunters in an uncomfortable manner. "He's what you might call a… specialist."

"What kind of specialist?" Dean asked, looking back at the other angel as Uriel walked up to them, staring silently at the three of them until Dean spoke again. "What are you gonna do?"

"You- all of you- need to leave this town immediately," Castiel said.

"Why?" Dean asked, voicing Bela's own confusion at the abrupt change of topic.

"Because we're about to destroy it," Castiel said.

"I'm sorry, _what_?" Bela said, looking incredulously at the angel that had dragged her out of Hell. "You're going to _smite_ the _town_ because of _one_ witch?"

"We're out of time," Castiel said. "This witch has to die, the seal must be saved."

"There are a thousand people here," Sam protested.

"One thousand two hundred fourteen," Uriel said solemnly.

"And you're willing to kill them all?" Sam said, looking indignantly at Uriel.

"This isn't the first time I've… purified a city," Uriel said; Bela wasn't even remotely tempted to ask him where he'd done this before.

"I understand that this is regrettable-" Castiel began.

"Regrettable?" Dean repeated.

"We have to hold the line," Castiel said. "Too many seals have been broken already."

"So you screw the pooch on some seals and this town has to pay the price?" Dean protested (Bela would never admit it, but she admired that about Dean; she might have been willing to thing about talking back to Castiel, but Uriel's manner just reminded her of the angel's old threat of sending her and Dean back to Hell, and thus turned her off the idea of talking back to him).

"It's the lives of one thousand against the lives of six billion," Castiel clarified. "There's a bigger picture here."

"Right, 'cause you're bigger picture kind of guys," Dean said, looking sceptically at the angel.

"Lucifer cannot rise," Castiel said firmly as he walked up to stand directly in front of Dean. "He does and hell rises with him. Is that something that you're willing to risk?"

"We'll stop this witch before she summons anyone," Sam said. "Your seal won't be broken and no-one has to die."

"We're wasting time with these mud monkeys," Uriel said.

"I'm sorry," Castiel said, turning away from the three hunters, "but we have our orders."

"No, you can't do this," Sam said, a tremor in his voice that Bela had only heard when he thought Dean wasn't real. "You're angels… I mean, aren't you supposed to- You're supposed to show mercy!"

"Says who?" Uriel said, a smirk on his face that only decreased Bela's already-low opinion of him.

"We have no choice," Castiel said grimly.

"Of course you have a choice," Dean said, glaring at the angel. "I mean, come on, what? You've never questioned a crap order, huh? What are you both, just a couple of hammers?"

"Look," Castiel said, "even if you can't understand it, have faith. The plan-"

"Is _crap_ ," Bela said, her usual fear forgotten as she walked up to look at Castiel; she'd done questionable things in her time, but leaving an entire town to die was never one of them. "You're more than just a hammer, Castiel; the fact that I'm here proves that, doesn't it?"

"All we're asking from you is a bit more time to do things our way," Dean said, looking resolutely at the angel. "Maybe you planned to smite the town, but that plan's changed."

"You think you can stop us?" Uriel asked.

"No," Dean said, walking over to stand in Uriel's face as he glared at the angel, "but if you're gonna smite this whole town, then you're gonna have to smite us with it, because we are not leaving."

Bela wasn't sure if it was stupidity, fear, or something else (She couldn't think of it as heroism; she wasn't a _hero_ , she was just someone who didn't want to go back to Hell) that stopped her from disagreeing with Dean's statement; she just knew that she was going to stay if the Winchesters were.

"See, you went to the trouble of busting me out of hell," Dean continued, his gaze fixed on Uriel. "I figure I'm worth something to the man upstairs. So you wanna waste me, go ahead, see how he digs that."

"I will drag you out of here myself," Uriel said.

"Yeah, but you'll have to kill me, then we're back to the same problem," Dean said, smiling slightly at the larger angel. "I mean, come on, you're gonna wipe out a whole town for one little witch. Sounds to me like you're compensating for something…?"

Not giving Uriel a chance to respond, Dean turned back to look firmly at Castiel; Uriel might have a very firm idea of what was to be done, but so far it seemed like Castiel was the one calling the shots, which meant that he was the one to convince. "We can do this. We will find that witch and we will stop the summoning."

"Castiel!" Uriel said (Bela was already starting to dislike this angel; Castiel's general neutrality mixed in with firm authority was vastly preferable to this one's obvious temper when he didn't get his way). "I will not let these peop-!"

"Enough!" Castiel said, holding up a firm hand at Urel as he looked at Dean, his expression contemplative, before he spoke. "I suggest you move quickly."

With that statement, the angels vanished, leaving Bela and the Winchesters exchanging anxious glances as they considered the scale of the task ahead of them.

"So…" Sam said, indicating his laptop. "I'll… see what I can find about Tracy, huh?"

Bela didn't need Dean's long experience with his brother to know that Sam had been disappointed at how fundamentally petty the angels had been; after he'd believed in them before Dean had (Bela didn't feel that she'd believed in them before now, given that she'd had the box of angel feathers as proof; she'd just assumed that they'd gone extinct), it had to be a let-down to see Heaven's servants acting like that.

"For what it's worth," she said, looking at Sam with an awkward smile, "I try and hold out hope that the demons are just too focused on stopping the devil right now to worry about the niceties."

"Or at least try and not let a few bad apples ruin the bunch," Dean said, following Bela's lead as he grinned at his brother while opening the door to let his grandmother into the room. "I mean, for all we know, God hates those jerks."

"What jerks?" Deanna asked, looking curiously at her grandson before she looked over at Sam and Bela. "And who else was here?"

"Angels," Bela said, shrugging slightly as she looked at the older woman. "Apparently we're dealing with a Seal, so we're going to have to step up the research or the angels are threatening to smite the town to stop it."

"Ah," Deanna said, shaking her head slightly at the thought of this new information. "Well, we were already on a schedule…"

"Exactly," Dean said, nodding in agreement at his grandmother. "And if we've got anything to say about it, the halo brigade is _not_ going to get to this town…"

* * *

With Sam's research skills working away at the information, it didn't take long for the four of them to work out how to find the witch. With Sam having determined that they were looking for a source of intense heat due to the state of the charred bone discovered in the latest hex bag, they had taken a quick detour to the high school to confirm that the kiln had been used to char the bone. A quick search of the office belonging to one of the teachers the brothers had spoken to earlier confirmed that he had a large collection of anomalous-looking bones, but Deanna had been quick to remind her grandsons that the teacher still wouldn't have had access to the houses of both previous victims; he was most likely Tracy's accomplice rather than the witch they were looking for, considering that a ritual this big would attract the attention of more than one witch.  
  
Regardless of Tracy's connection to the teacher, finding him had immediately become their top priority, prompting Sam to check school records and confirm his address. Heading towards the house listed in the school database, the four hunters didn't take long to reach their destination, Dean parking the Impala outside while Sam divided up their weaponry.  
  
"OK," Dean said, looking between the other three, "for the moment, we don't know if Tracy or Don are the vics or the skanks, so Sam and me'll go in there first, take out whoever looks threatening, and take it from there; you two come in later if we look like we're in trouble."  
  
"Understood," Deanna said, giving her grandson a brief smile of approval of his proposed strategy.  
  
With the last commands issued, the brothers hurried up to the house, a quick search around it soon identifying a large door at the back leading downwards.  
  
Entering the basement, Dean and Sam found a relatively barren room, assorted boxes and cabinets scattered around the edges while Tracy was tied up in the centre, a rope around her wrists and a bar in the ceiling as well as a rag tied across her mouth, Don standing in front of her with a knife and chalice in his hands, an altar with a pentagram, a crucifix, and a ram's skull on it just visible behind him.  
  
As he watched Don raise the knife to stab Tracy, Dean made his decision; he might have doubts about the girl at the moment, but Don was _definitely_ not on their side. Raising the Colt- with a summoning like this, it was best to be decisive- he fired a shot, the bullet digging into the back of Don's neck and sending him falling to the ground. With the active witch taken out of the picture, Dean led Sam into the room, the older Winchester moving to release Tracy from her bonds while Sam checked Don's body, a quick glance all that was needed to affirm that he was dead.  
  
"Thank you!" Tracy said as she practically ripped off her gag. "He was gonna kill me! Ugh, that sick son of a bitch. I mean, did you see what he was doing? Did you hear him? How sloppy his incantation was?"  
  
Dean and Sam barely had time to look up at that statement before Tracy waved her hands and hurled them both back, hitting the ground in pain as they cursed themselves for letting their guard down.  
  
"My brother," the blonde witch said with a smile as she knelt down to pick up the knife and chalice that Don had been holding, looking mockingly down at the fallen Winchesters, "always was a little dim."  
  
"Then you have that in common," another voice said. Tracy barely had time to turn around before Bela Talbot walked into the room and thrust her right hand forward, sending both objects flying out of Tracy's hands. Tracy was just opening her mouth as though preparing to cast another curse when Bela stepped aside and Deanna Campbell stepped in, a large shotgun in her hand, which she fired at the seemingly younger woman before Tracy could get a word out. The shotgun was too far away to deliver the full amount of punishment possible, but it was enough to send Tracy to the ground, screaming in agony as parts of her were left bleeding and broken by the blast, until Bela pulled out her own gun and fired a final shot directly into her head.  
  
"Well," Dean said as he helped Sam to his feet, looking grimly at the body before them. "That was… kinda gross."  
  
"Are hunts ever clean?" Deanna asked, looking at her namesake with a slight smile.  
  
"Point," Dean admitted, trying not to shudder as he looked at the body before them; there were hunts not being clean, and there were hunts that created _that_ much blood…  
  
Still, when the end result was that a Seal keeping the Devil locked up remained intact, and a powerful demon was left imprisoned, the finer details didn't exactly matter, when you got down to it.

* * *

The following morning found Dean and Bela sitting on a park bench, staring thoughtfully at the group of children playing nearby, before the slight sound of fluttering wings alerted them to an unexpected new arrival as Castiel appeared, sitting between them as though he had always been there.  
  
"So," Dean said at last, looking curiously at the angel, "how's it feel to be wrong?"  
  
"About what?" Castiel asked, looking back at Dean.  
  
"About what was needed to save the day," Dean clarified. "You guys said 'blow up the town', we said 'find the witch', and we won out."  
  
"I am not here to judge, Dean," Castiel said.  
  
"Then why are you here?" Bela asked.  
  
"Our orders-" Castiel began.  
  
"Yeah, you know, I've heard enough of these orders of yours-" Dean began.  
  
"Our orders were not to stop the summoning of Samhain," Castiel interjected. "They wer to do whatever you told us to do."  
  
"What?" Bela said, looking at the angel in surprise.  
  
"So… your orders… were to follow _my_ orders?" Dean asked.  
  
"It was a test," Castiel clarified. "To see how you would perform under… battlefield conditions, you might say."  
  
"It was a witch, not the Tet Offensive," Dean said, sitting silence for a moment as he looked at the town in front of him, before he smiled, "Still… we won, huh?"  
  
"You did," Castiel confirmed. "Just as I was praying you would."  
  
"You were… _praying_?" Bela said, looking at the angel in surprise.  
  
"I'm not like you think, Bela," Castiel said. "These people, they're all my father's creations; I do not wish them to suffer if I can do anything."  
  
"Is that… why you saved me?" Bela asked, looking uncertainly at the angel.  
  
"It was one reason," Castiel said, his tone making it clear that it wasn't a good time for Bela to ask what other reasons there might have been for his actions.  
  
"Talking of you… saving me…" Bela began, looking uncertainly at the angel as she reached up to uncertainly rub her shoulder. "I've been… well, a couple of times, when I've been in danger… or in a fight…"  
  
"You are drawing on the remnants of your demonic powers," Castiel explained.  
  
" _What_?" Dean and Bela said, looking sharply at the angel.  
  
"You are aware that demons are created as human souls are corrupted by their time in the Pit," Castiel said, giving them a chance to nod in response before he continued. "When I encountered Bela's soul during my departure from Hell, the process of conversion had already begun, but it was not yet at a point where complete recovery was impossible. I was able to purge the worst of the demonic traits from your soul as I returned you to your body, including your capacity for compassion and ability to sympathize with humans, but there was only so much that I could achieve before I would have risked being captured."  
  
"So… I'm… part _demon_?" Bela said, looking at the angel incredulously.  
  
"The potential is there, but it is not significant," Castiel explained. "It will arise in situations where you are in danger, but the mark I have given you will limit the amount of influence it has on you; should you begin to lose yourself to your demonic side, my mark will prompt your body to return to normal, as well as alert me if it goes too far."  
  
"And… you're OK with that?" Dean said, looking at Castiel in surprise. "After all that stuff you said about Sam-"  
  
"Your brother's abilities can be consciously controlled and influenced, as well as the potential that they will affect his own identity as he draws on them," Castiel explained. "As it currently stands, Bela's powers cannot develop further than they are, and my mark will control what effect they have on her as a person; her safety can be reasonably guaranteed so long as she wishes to remain human and acknowledges the warnings of my mark, but your brother's powers put him… close to a line that he should ignore."  
  
There was nothing that Dean could say to that revelation, so he simply nodded, Bela doing the same as she looked at the angel, suddenly uncertain if she should hug him in gratitude or start screaming at the implications of what he had just revealed.  
  
"Can I tell both you something if you promise not to tell another soul?" Castiel said.  
  
"OK," Dean said, Bela nodding in agreement as well.  
  
"I'm not a… hammer as you say," Castiel explained. "I have questions, I have doubts. I don't know what is right and what is wrong anymore, or even whether my decisions have been appropriate. But in the coming months you will have more decisions to make. I don't envy the weight that's on your shoulders, Dean. I truly don't."  
  
Still left with nothing to say to that statement, Dean looked back at the playground in front of him for a moment, before he turned back to see that the angel had vanished, leaving him and Bela alone on the bench once again.  
  
"So," he said, looking at her with a slight smile, "you're out of Hell and you've got an angelic sponsor to make sure you don't go back."  
  
"Looks like it," Bela said, nodding in agreement at his assessment.  
  
"Well," Dean said, suddenly wishing he had a better idea what to say now, "since you and… Grandma… are here now… care to stick around?"  
  
It was the most awkward offer Bela had ever received, but somehow that made it all the more appreciated; Dean had no real idea what to say at a time like this, but the fact that he was even bothering to try, considering his usual attitude where emotional moments were concerned, said a great deal about how much it meant to him.  
  
And the fact that she was being asked to stick around for what was essentially a _family reunion_ …  
  
Bela wasn't sure if she was reading too much into that part of Dean's statement, but if she was wrong, she almost didn't _want_ to have to face the possibility of a correct answer.


	16. Family Reflections

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel obligated to warn you that this chapter introduces an original Hunt with twists that some may find disturbing…

Walking into the Singer Salvage Yard, Deanna wondered what it said about the kind of life her grandsons had lived that the person who lived here was now the closest thing they had to a father.

Unlike her husband, she'd never developed much of an opinion of John Winchester one way or the other- she had the natural maternal dislike of anyone who took her daughter away from her, but at the same time she'd appreciated anything that made her child happy- but she'd always gotten the impression that he would have been a good father when the time came, willing to listen to his children and brighten their moods despite his own rough childhood and his role in the recent war.

Somehow, even if she had seen her grandsons act in a manner that clearly demonstrated a lifetime's worth of training, the idea that they could have received that training from the man that John Winchester had been when she knew him didn't quite feel right; she was looking forward to the chance to learn more about him.

She wished that she could say she was looking forward to the opportunity to learn more about her grandsons, but something about the way Sam and Dean were looking at each other gave Deanna the impression that there were things the two men ( _Men_ ; her grandsons should just be boys if she had any!) needed to talk about with each other first before they were willing to share them with her.

She'd do what she could to talk with them, of course, but there was only so much she could do when they didn't _want_ to talk…

As they approached the house, the door opened and an older man walked out, somewhat overweight but with an impression of real strength in his manner, wearing an old cap and a plaid shirt with rolled-up sleeves over a simpler T-shirt.

"Deanna Campbell?" he said, holding out a hand to her with a slightly awkward smile. "Bobby Singer; heard a bit about you."

"I've… heard a few things about you," Deanna replied, deciding to focus on the facts for the moment; her grandsons and Bela were still there, so this wasn't the best time to talk about what she wanted to know…

"Anyway," Bobby said, looking over at the younger three visitors, "Dean, I think a few of the new arrivals in the lot have some parts you can use for that car of yours, and Sam, if you and Bela want to check the books, I could use a fresh pair of eyes; think I've found some texts that could tie into the Seals, but if I read any more I think my eyes are gonna fall out…"

"Sure thing," Sam said, smiling briefly at Bobby's weak joke before he headed into the house, Bela shrugging as she walked after the younger Winchester.

"So," Bobby said, looking over at Deanna as Dean wandered off into the scrapyard, "with the next generation otherwise occupied right now, anything I can do for you?"

"Why do you ask?" Deanna asked, even as she followed the man into the house's kitchen, leaving Sam and Bela in the study.

"Way I see it, Bela's good at helping you adjust to the world we live in, but only so much she can tell you about what your family's been doin' since you got zapped forward," Bobby clarified, opening a cupboard and showing Deanna some of the bottles within it. "What's your poison?"

After studying the bottles for a moment, Deanna picked one out and opened it, allowing Bobby to open his own and take a drink before either of them said anything else.

"So…" Deanna said, looking awkwardly at the other man before she finally blurted out the most obvious question she could ask him. "What was John like?"

"What?" Bobby said, looking at her in surprise at the question. "Didn't you-?"

"I knew him before he knew about… all this; what I want to know is what John was like _after_ he found out what was out there," Deanna clarified; now that she'd started asking the question, she had to get it all out. "From what Bela told me, he had a fairly significant reputation before he died- and how did that happen, anyway?"

"Sold his soul to the demon that killed Mary to save Dean's life after a bad car accident," Bobby said grimly.

"Oh," Deanna said, suddenly lost for anything to say.

Bobby couldn't blame her for her uncertainty; on the one hand, what John had done was incredibly stupid… but on the other hand, it had been done to save his son…

"He got out, though," the salvage yard owner added, deciding he might as well assuage her most immediate concerns.

"What?" Deanna said, looking at him in surprise. "John Winchester… _escaped_ from _Hell_?"

"Far as we can tell, Lilith only started being a problem when Azazel- the demon that killed your husband and your daughter- opened this old Devil's Gate a couple of years back after it had been locked up by Samuel Colt last century," Bobby explained. "Even when we worked out what it was, we didn't get there in time to stop the gate being opened, but when a bunch of other demons were trying to get out while we were closing it, John took the opportunity to bail as well; his soul, or ghost, or whatever, dragged Azazel out of his current meatsuit long enough for Dean to get the Colt and use it on the bastard when it got back into its body."

"Really?" Deanna said, looking thoughtful at the news she'd just received. "And… what happened to John then?"

"Once the demon was gone, John stayed long enough to give his boys a nod, and then he… well, he vanished in a glow of some sort," Bobby said, shrugging apologetically at her. "Assume he went on to the good place- that kinda glow didn't really say 'Hell' to me- but no real guarantees."

"Oh," Deanna said, lost for what else could be said to that news before she settled on smiling hopefully. "Well… at least he got out."

"Yep," Bobby said, nodding at her with a thoughtful smile, shifting the conversation to a topic he could be more certain of. "As for your original question, John had his issues as a parent sometimes- ended up leaving Dean and Sam alone in motel rooms when hunts went south when they were younger, raised 'em more like soldiers than sons most of the time, dealt out some harsh punishments when he thought they were needed- but I never doubted that he cared about those kids; he always regretted what he had to do to keep 'em safe before they could defend themselves, but family was always his first priority."

"He sounds like Samuel," Deanna said, smiling slightly at Bobby.

"Your husband?" Bobby asked.

"Yes, that's him," Deanna confirmed, nodding in confirmation at him. "He was a good man, and a good hunter, but his idea of keeping Mary safe was teaching her everything about what was out there and then teaching her how to fight it, rather than keeping it secret."

"And you went along with that?" Bobby asked.

"I was introduced to the life after Samuel killed the Wraith that killed my family; it seemed like a good call when it started," Deanna said, looking defensively at Bobby for a moment before she smiled as her attention turned back to more pleasant memories. "Looking back, I think her dates with John were the first real glimpse of normality she'd ever had, outside of school…"

"She never dated before?" Bobby said, before looking suddenly embarrassed as though he'd only just realised who he was talking about.

"She'd had a few relationships, but those were mainly with hunters she met up with during long-distance jobs; John was the only person she ever dated who wasn't a hunter first," Deanna explained. "Their relationship had its ups and downs at first, but when we last spoke about him… she said that she liked the fact that he could still believe in happy endings."

Bobby didn't say anything in response to that for a moment, looking at Deanna in a manner that said more than words ever could, but then Deanna broke the silence for him.

"I know that probably didn't remain the best way to describe him after he learned what was out there," she said, looking in understanding at the older hunter. "I understand what he was like as a father, but as a hunter… what was he like when you met him?"

"Driven," Bobby said at last, trying to go for the most diplomatic description of John Winchester that he could. "Man was one of the most committed hunters I ever met, but it was all treated as a necessity in the name of his final goal to find and kill whatever killed Mary. He compiled all kinds of background details about the thing even before he dropped off the map to spend a full year hunting for the truth about it, and that was on top of everything else he took out during that time; ghosts, werewolves, the occasional demon, wendigoes… you name it, odds are good that John Winchester stopped it at some point."

"Oh," Deanna said, her tone still refusing to give Bobby any indication how she felt about his description of what her son-in-law had become. "And… what did you think of him as… well, as a father?"

"Questionable, really," Bobby admitted grimly, after taking a moment to determine the most diplomatic response. "He'd never _hurt_ his boys, but he rarely ever told 'em how proud he really was of what they'd accomplished; Dean raised Sam more than John ever did, but pretty much had to raise himself at the same time, what with John focusing more on trainin' 'em to survive than raising them as children. Dean always idolised John for the most part- man couldn't do wrong in Dean's eyes, and Dean held himself up to a stupidly high standard to try and make himself 'worthy' of his old man- but Sam had issues with it, particularly later on; ran away a few times and generally tried to get out of hunting."

"It didn't work out for him, I take it?" Deanna asked, indicating the room where Sam was currently carrying out research.

"Depends on how you look at it," Bobby replied, smiling slightly at the memory. "John wasn't exactly wild when Sam told him he was leaving, but he did sign all the paperwork needed to help Sam get into Stanford-"

"Sam went to _Stanford_?" Deanna said, clearly impressed despite herself as she smiled at that news.

"Full scholarship ride," Bobby said, nodding at the woman with a proud smile. "John wouldn't say it out loud, but he was actually rather proud of Sam gettin' that far once he'd calmed down after Sam left, even if he never really got the nerve to say it to the kid himself; Sam got through three years, and had an interview to start law school before…"

"Before?" Deanna asked.

"Before the demon that killed Mary killed his girlfriend," Bobby said, his smile faltering as he remembered the first time he'd heard that news.

He hadn't kept in regular contact with Sam during his time at Stanford- he recalled Sam once calling him to confirm that he'd put Bobby down as his emergency contact just in case, mainly because he'd had to declare John dead to avoid the college asking him to sign any additional paperwork for Sam's time there, but that was about it- but he'd heard enough about Sam's life there to recognise how hard it must have been for Sam to open himself up to someone to that extent, after so long relying only on Dean.

Hell, Bobby still wasn't totally over Karen, and they'd both been totally confused at what had happened when she'd died; for Sam to have seen Jessica die at the hands of something he _knew_ he could have stopped…

The sound of a knocking on the door prompted Bobby and Deanna to look up, Dean standing at the now-open door with an awkward expression.

"Hey," he said, after a moment had gone by without any of them speaking. "Just… well, we're getting on with the research, and…"

"We'll be right there," Deanna said, smiling in understanding at Dean.

She didn't know if her grandson had heard their earlier conversation, but it didn't matter; he wasn't telling her to leave, and was inviting her to spend time with him, so it was best to focus on those details right now more than anything else.

* * *

As he closed the latest book he'd been reading, Bobby wondered if research had always been this frustrating.  
  
He'd dealt with some difficult hunts in the past, but he'd generally gone in with a clear idea of what he was looking for and what he'd do once he found it; right now they were just trying to look up anything related to the Seals and work on it from there. With the Raising of the Witnesses and the Rising of Samhain identified as some of the already-broken Seals, the five of them had tried to follow up on that information by seeing if there were any other Seals that would directly involve some kind of threat being unleashed at the same time. So far nothing like that had turned up, even if some of the acts required to break the Seals sounded fairly twisted- a guide killing his charges raised far too many possible interpretations in Bobby's mind- but right now he was starting to wonder if this had been a good idea.  
  
Trying to track the Seals might be a good idea in theory, but from what Bobby had learned from his earlier background research, there were far more Seals out there than the sixty-six needed to release the Devil; just staking them out would only get them so far, particularly when most of them didn't even rely on a physical location. No matter what they might try to do, there was just too many possibilities for them to be sure they'd covered all of them; quite frankly, he wasn't surprised that even the angels were having trouble with this whole mess.  
  
Dean had gone off on a snack run to get them some food while the rest continued their research, but Bobby was starting to wonder about the kid; he couldn't fault Dean's commitment to their current task, but there was still something about his attitude that put Bobby off, as though there was something Dean was going to great lengths not to think about. The way Sam and Bela were looking at him sometimes didn't help matters; Sam wondering if Dean was hiding something was comparatively normally, considering that Sam in particular had never fully liked the need for secrets and its impact on the Winchesters' chances at living normal lives, but Bela looking at Dean in what Bobby could have considered sympathetic understanding if it was on anyone else's face was actually slightly unnerving…  
  
Bobby's train of thought was broken at the sound of the Impala's horn from outside the house, prompting Sam to sigh and get up from his chair to go and see what his brother was up to. Bobby and the two women only had to wait a couple of minutes before Sam came back into the room carrying bags of food, but the apologetic look on his face made it clear that something else had come up.  
  
"Sorry, but we've got to go," the younger Winchester said, looking around at the other three. "Dean found a reference to what sounds like a ghost in the news- he was taking a look at a couple of papers- and… well, he'd like to check it out before anything else happens."  
  
"This a legitimate case?" Bobby asked, looking pointedly at Sam.  
  
"A woman says she was thrown down a flight of stairs by a ghost…" Sam said, trailing off awkwardly as he looked over at his grandmother before he shrugged. "Anyway, Dean thinks it could be a good opportunity to give us both a break after the stress of our last couple of hunts, so we're going to check it out now; I… well, we'll see you later."  
  
Before anyone could say anything, Sam had turned around and left the room, the sound of the Impala starting up a short while later suggesting to Bobby that Sam had run back to the car; he had a feeling that the hunt was less serious than he was trying to make it sound, but something about it must have grabbed Dean's attention…  
  
He decided not to worry about it; those two knew that he was there for them if they needed any additional back-up, and something that could just be a simple salt-and-burn wasn't something to be concerned about. As Sam had noted, the Winchesters' last couple of hunts had been particularly difficult even by their usual standards; Dean and Sam were entitled to an easy case if anyone was.  
  
Turning his attention back to his remaining guests, Bobby prepared to settle down for a further talk, only for a ringing phone to attract his attention.  
  
"Hello?" he said, looking apologetically at the two women as he answered the line.  
  
" _Uh… Bobby_?" Garth said on the other end of the line, the younger hunter sounding particularly anxious (Not that it was particularly uncommon in Bobby's experience; Garth was good at keeping track of the facts, but he had a habit of slipping up when actually in the field). " _Sorry to bother you, but I'm in the middle of something here, and I just heard about this other case… well, I don't want to leave what I'm dealing with here, but this should_ definitely _be checked out_ …"  
  
"What is it?" Bobby asked, wondering just how concerned he should be; Garth was reasonably good at research when he applied himself, but he could be a bit impulsive…  
  
" _Fathers raping their daughters and reports of sulphur around the windows_ ," Garth said grimly.  
  
" _What_?" Bobby yelled, standing sharply up and quickly restraining the urge to be sick.  
  
Something was doing… _that_?  
  
The sulphur made the 'what' part fairly obvious, but even given how twisted demons could be normally, that was a whole new level…  
  
"I'm on it," he said, reaching over to scrawl the name and state of the town where the attacks were taking place on a nearby notepad before he hung up the phone and looked grimly at the two women.  
  
"Something's come up," he said, swallowing as he looked between them both. "If you'd like to come along… well, I'd appreciate it."  
  
"What is it?" Bela asked.  
  
"Contact of mine thinks that a demon's making fathers rape their daughters," Bobby said.  
  
"Oh my God…" Deanna said, looking at Bobby in horror before her face hardened. "When do we leave?"  
  
"Soon as possible," Bobby said firmly, before a glance in Bela's direction revealed that she had turned suddenly white, as though she'd just been reminded of something terrible.  
  
"No…" she whispered, her voice so low that Bobby and Deanna had to strain to hear it. "No… not again… not again…"  
  
"Again?" Deanna repeated, looking uncertainly at Bela as she moved over to slightly crouch beside the other woman's chair. "Bela, what-?"  
  
"Why are we waiting here?" Bela said, standing sharply up as she looked over at the other two hunters. "We have to go, _now_."  
  
Bobby had no idea what was responsible for her sudden shift in mood- one minute she was lost in what had clearly been a terrible thought, and now she looked more resolute than John had been when he got a hit on what might have been the demon- but he had encountered enough hunters over the years to know that expression.  
  
It was the expression someone had when realising that they were about to deal with something that they _really_ didn't want to face again.  
  
Bobby wasn't going to push Bela about it- she'd actually been fairly reliable since she came back, based on what Dean and Deanna had told him about her recent assistance in their relevant hunts, and he didn't want to give her a reason to get angry at him- but there was definitely something about this case that would make keeping an eye on Bela a priority…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So… what does everyone think of the original hunt?
> 
> Trust me, if you think it's twisted now, wait until you see what else I have planned…


	17. Bela's Darkest Secret

As she walked up to the hospital that Bobby had determined was their best starting point for this case, Deanna tried not to feel sick at the thought of what they were dealing with.

She knew that demons could be twisted, but even amid all the other hunts she had carried out, she had never encountered anything twisted enough to do that; demons normally just killed people, used the meatsuit until they couldn't be bothered, and that was that.

The possibility of something making fathers do… _this_ … to their own daughters and leave them alive afterwards…

This was a demon that was _particularly_ twisted…

That was one reason that she had come here rather than the prison; the arresting officers would just be focused on keeping the fathers locked up, but there must have been some doctors who had been responsible for examining the fathers and daughters after the assault, which meant that they may have a better picture of what the fathers were like in the aftermath.

It was a bit of a stretch, but that was the best she could come up with at the moment; she'd just have to hope that it would be enough.

As she entered the hospital via the main doors, Deanna took a deep breath and walked up to the main desk, looking firmly at the receptionist.

"Can I help you?" the receptionist asked, looking curiously up at her.

"I hope so," Deanna said, raising the badge that Bobby Singer had provided for her (Apparently it was one of a series of badges Dean had made for her at some point in case she had to participate in hunts, and there was apparently some kind of joke about the name, but right now she was just going to go along with it and focus on the case). "Doctor Beverly McCoy; I'm a behavioural psychiatrist with the FBI, here to investigate your current case."

"Case?" the woman repeated, looking uncertainly at Deanna.

"The… rapes," Deanna said, looking apologetically at the woman. "I know it's a difficult topic, but I'd… well, that's what makes it worth exploring."

"Worth exploring?" the woman repeated.

"To do what we can to try and prevent this… whatever-it-is… happening again," Deanna said, suddenly feeling the inadequacy of her cover story; the situation was urgent, but she really should have given this crisis more thought. "If you can just direct me to the doctor who's been dealing with… that business… when they get brought in, that would be appreciated."

After a moment's pause, the woman nodded, picked up a phone, and dialled a number, leaving her for a moment before an older man in a long white coat walked up to her.

"Hello," he said, nodding at her as he shook her hand. "Doctor Larson; I'm in charge of… the case."

"Doctor McCoy," Deanna replied, shaking the offered hand (She suddenly had an idea where Dean had picked up her surname, even if she was surprised that he knew about such an old show). "You have my sympathy; this case must be… difficult… for you."

"I try and focus on what I can do about it," Doctor Larson replied, as he led her into a nearby office, closing the door behind them as he moved over to his desk. "I can't diagnose the cause of the breakdown, but I can… help them cope with the aftermath."

"They all need to cope?" Deanna asked, trying to sound curious rather than concerned; if she focused on maintaining an appearance of personal detachment, her cover would be more effective. "Nobody feels… relieved to have gotten it out of their system or anything?"

"Far from it," Doctor Larson said, looking thoughtfully at some notes in a file on his desk. "Actually, that's one of the strangest things about this case; as far as we can tell, none of the fathers ever had any contact with each other on a regular basis, but they all claim the same thing."

"Which is?" Deanna asked.

"That they don't know why they did it," Doctor Larson said, shaking his head in bemusement as he closed the file. "They all remember committing the act, and their daughters all confirm that they were responsible- once they were coherent enough to talk, of course- but the fathers keep saying that they don't know _why_ they did it; they just… had the sudden urge to… go for it."

"Really?" Deanna said, looking at the doctor in surprise. "That's the best they've given you?"

"That's all they can say," Doctor Larson said, sighing in frustration. "I don't think they're in denial or anything like that- they acknowledge what they did and genuinely regret doing it- but I just don't see how we can make any progress when they can't explain why it happened."

"And there's… nothing to suggest what might have triggered this?" Deanna asked, trying to choose her words carefully; she wanted to seem impartial, but she didn't want to seem callous.

"The only thing we've noticed that they all have in common is that their daughters were all member of the same Girl Scouts group, meeting at the same time on the same night, and that's not really enough for this kind of thing," Doctor Larson explained. "The group doesn't even do baking sales; we can't find anything to account for what they might have done that could have had… _anything_ to do with this."

"I see," Deanna said, trying to give the impression that she sympathised with his frustration even as she was briefly smiling at this new information. A Girl Scouts group might not be an obvious demonic target, but it did provide an opportunity for the demon to have access to the girls and their fathers; maybe its regular meatsuit was one of the group supervisors. "And… you said that the… fathers… keep saying that they don't know why they did it?"

"Precisely," Doctor Larson said with a frustrated sigh. "I mean, normally in these cases we have them at least trying to claim that they were just suddenly overcome by some warped desire, but these people aren't even saying that; they're continuing to say that something _made_ them do it, rather than the thought just popping into their heads for some reason…"

That certainly fit the demon assessment, as far as Deanna could see; it wasn't hard to picture a demon exerting just enough influence to make its host do something like that, without making its presence so obvious that the host _knew_ something was controlling them.

The only question was why any demon would restrict itself to something like this. Fathers assaulting their daughters was a horrible concept, but she couldn't think of a single demon that wouldn't have also taken the opportunity to kill someone; most demons just weren't interested in causing psychological damage alone…

"Was there anything else?" she asked, lost for anything she could offer this man that could even begin to express her sympathy for what he was having to deal with; he was clearly deeply affected by what had happened to his patients, and even if she managed to stop the cause, the symptoms would remain.

"There was one thing," Doctor Larson said, looking uncertainly at Deanna. "The first case reported… he remembered saying a name."

"What name?" Deanna asked.

"Abby," Doctor Larson replied, briefly glancing at his notes to confirm it. "Which is strange, because his daughter's name was Grace; it's not exactly a name that inspires that kind of nickname, even with… what he was doing…"

"Yes, I see what you mean," Deanna said, not wanting the man to have to talk about it any further; he was a good man who was deeply affected by a difficult case that he would never be able to solve to his satisfaction. This whole thing would be difficult enough for the doctor to deal with when he would never be able to find an explanation for it, so the best thing for her to do right now would be to find the demon before it could do anything else and not force him to have to hear any more stories about what it was doing.

Hopefully, what she'd gathered so far would be enough…

* * *

"Anything?" Bobby asked, looking up at Deanna as she returned to one of their two currently-booked hotel rooms; considering the obvious age gap and questions that might arise if she, Bobby and Bela had booked rooms together, Deanna and Bela had taken one room and Bobby the other. People might find it odd that a woman Bela's age was sharing a room with her 'aunt', but it raised less questions than if she'd been sharing with Bobby, and Samuel's death was still too comparatively fresh for Deanna to feel comfortable even pretending to be involved with someone else.  
  
"About what we expected," Deanna said, shaking her head as she looked at her notes. "I did learn that all the victims were members of the same Girl Guides group, so at least there's something we can use to narrow down the list of potential further targets, but that may not be enough to help us. Staking out the Girl Guide group members could work as a strategy- the police wouldn't bother trying that as they're dismissing this as just something psychological- but there are still a fair amount of girls to eliminate from the list if we're going to find this demon in time…"  
  
Bela had been unusually quiet ever since they'd learned about this new hunt, but the comment about the Girl Guides seemed to inspire some sign of interest from her as she looked up at Deanna, an apprehensive expression on her face.  
  
"Do we have a list of other girls in the group?" she asked.  
  
"I already thought of that," Deanna said, nodding at Bela in conformation. "I ran a search on the… Interweb?"  
  
"Inter _net_ ," Bobby corrected with a slight smile.  
  
"Internet," Deanna corrected herself, nodding at Bobby in thanks before she continued, "and I was able to find reference to a couple of local groups that were near each of the victims' houses; process of elimination was able to identify which one was the one we were after, and I was able to get a members list."  
  
"Nice work," Bobby said, smiling briefly as Deanna flipped open her notebook to reveal a list of names, but the smile soon faltered as he took in the contents of the list. "I take it the ones with a line through 'em…"  
  
"Were already attacked, yes," Deanna said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a crumpled-up piece of paper with a photograph on it. "I was also able to get this picture of the Guides, accompanied by a list of names; if we can identify what they all have in common, we might be able to work out who'll be the next target."  
  
"So… do we have… anything else?" Bela asked uncertainly. "Any more information, I mean?"  
  
"Well… there was one thing," Deanna said, looking awkwardly at the other two hunters; what she was about to reveal was a fragile clue, but it was the only other thing they had to go on. "According to the doctor, the first rapist reported a memory of referring to his daughter as 'Abby' when he was… doing it…"  
  
"Abby?" Bela repeated, looking at Deanna in horror. "You're sure?"  
  
"That's the name the doctor gave me," Deanna said, looking curiously at the younger woman. "Why; does it mean something to you?"  
  
"Oh no…" Bobby said, his eyes widening in horror as he looked at Bela, apparently having followed her train of thought faster than Deanna had. "You don't think…?"  
  
"Why not?" Bela said, looking at Bobby with fearful tears in her eyes. "If Castiel can drag me out of Hell to help God, why can't the demons make sure that I have to face my greatest nightmare all over again?"  
  
"Your greatest-?" Deanna began, before her eyes widened in realisation.  
  
Fathers were being possessed and forced to rape their pre-teen daughters.  
  
Daughters that, now that Deanna thought about it, could be seen as looking like Bela if you focused on certain features; none of them looked _exactly_ like her, but a couple had her hair, another one could be said to have her eyes, a third had a similarly-structured nose…  
  
Bela had been looking particularly anxious ever since they first heard about this case…  
  
And hadn't Bela mentioned during one of their many conversations that her name had originally been 'Abby' before she changed it?  
  
Add in Bela's reaction to hearing about the case in the first place- far more than conventional horror; that was the kind of horror you felt when hearing something _personal_ \- and it created a picture she _really_ did't like.  
  
"Oh my God…" Deanna said, looking at Bela in horror. "Your _father_ -?"  
  
" _That's_ why you made the deal?" Bobby said, looking at her in stunned realisation.  
  
"A _deal_?" Deanna said, initial horror changed to shock. "You made a _deal_ -?"  
  
"I was a teenager talking to another girl on the swings; I didn't _know_ she was actually _serious_!" Bela said, looking indignantly at the other two hunters as she stood up, looking indignantly at them. "He raped me once a week since I turned eleven; that's over _three years_ where I endured being _raped_ by my own _father_ ; if someone offered me a way out-!"  
  
"You could've gone to-!" Bobby began.  
  
"The police?" Bela said, letting out a humourless laugh at that idea. "Who was going to believe me? I was the rebellious teenage daughter of a well-off man whose mother killed herself when I was eight-!"  
  
"What?" Bobby said, clearly confused at this news. "But… but the records-"  
  
"My _step_ -mother died in the crash; my actual _mother_ tried to protect me until he killed her and set it up to look like she killed herself!" Bela said, practically spitting at the memory of what she was talking about.  
  
"Records?" Deanna asked, seizing on the opportunity to think about something less twisted. "What records are you talking about?"  
  
"Back when we had… issues with Bela, an old friend of mine dug up a file on her past and learned that her parents died in a suspicious accident over ten years ago," Bobby explained  
  
"Sam mentioned that some stuff he heard during the Raising of the Witnesses suggested that your dad wasn't exactly a saint, but… why the hell wouldn't you _say_ something?"  
  
"Would you admit to that?" Bela said, looking over at Bobby with a grim glare. "That you were victimised by your own father while your step-mother just watched?"  
  
"She _knew_?" Deanna said, horrified at this news; some of their ghost-hunts turned up unpleasant family histories sometimes, but it was still a shock to hear what people could be capable of without any supernatural influence. "How-?"  
  
"We'll talk later," Bobby interjected, looking firmly at the two women.  
  
" _Later_?" Deanna repeated, looking at Bobby in shock. "But-!"  
  
"It's absolute balls, I know, but we've got kids on the line right now; we can worry about digging up the past later," Bobby said firmly. "Right now, we've got a sadistic son-of-a-bitch who's makin' fathers do unspeakable things to their kids; even if he is who we think he is, I think we can agree that we need to stop that bastard before we start clearing up who went through what?"


	18. The Father, the Daughter, and the Damned

This was definitely one hunt where Deanna wasn't sure how to feel if things went well.

On the one hand, it hadn't been too difficult to work out where the demon they were currently dealing with was going to strike next; for reasons unknown to them at the moment, the demon's attacks, when studied on a map, formed an inverted pentagram symbol… or, at least, _could_ form an inverted pentagram if certain other location were targeted. A couple of the locations listed as where the crime took place weren't the homes of the children targeted, but those locations was close enough to some of the listed addresses of the Girl Guide members to assume that the demon had just taken them somewhere else to actually commit the crime.

With that detail in mind, it hadn't been hard to locate where the demon was likely to strike next; the most likely target for the next stage of the pentagram actually lived on the exact point required to make the symbol perfect. All they had to do was park outside the house, keep an eye on what was happening inside it, and then get in to target the demon before it could finish the job; something this strong was going to create a fair amount of interference even if it didn't make its presence obvious in other ways.

The only disadvantage was that they couldn't be certain when the demon was going to attack. The last attack had taken place only a day ago, but the previous three attacks had been separated by various different time frames; they varied between four days or a day apart, so there was no way to be sure if the demon was going to attack now or later.

On top of the current uncertainty, there was also the fact that, no matter what they accomplished right now, the demons had still scored a significant blow against their victims. Regardless of what she, Bela and Bobby accomplished right now, four daughters were still going to lose their faith in their fathers after being victim to an unspeakable violation…

Deanna shook it off; the situation sucked, but that was the hazard of being a hunter. No matter how hard you tried, there were always going to be some people that you just couldn't save, regardless of how much you wanted to protect them, either because you arrived too late or you took too long to work out what was happening; all you could do was work with what you were up against as quickly as possible, take every possible precaution, and take it all from there.

She, Bela and Bobby had rented a third car for the night- she and Bela had driven here in a separate car from Bobby to increase the amount of potential weapons that they could take- and each taken up positions on the three main roads leading up to the house; Bobby was just outside the house, as the most 'up-to-date' and 'in-practise' hunter of the three of them, but she and Bela were reasonably close by. All three of them were parked in a manner that would conceal their presence in their cars from any casual observers in the neighbouring houses- people might wonder why a previously-unseen car was hanging around for so long, but they'd never be able to prove anything- and they were keeping an eye out for anything that might indicate a demonic presence or the father coming home.

Even if they couldn't be sure if the father was possessed without more hands-on tests, they might still be able to tell if something was wrong at a distance…

The mobile phone ringing brought her out of her thoughts, Deanna responding to the ringing on automatic; adapting to the developments of the modern world was an awkward experience, but she couldn't complain about the results.

"Yes?" she asked, not bothering to check the number; only Bobby or Bela could be calling her on this number at this time.

" _Just saw a car drive by and park outside the house_ ," Bobby said, his tone grim. " _Pretty sure it's the father_."

"Are you sure he's not just late back?" Deanna asked; she wanted to stop this assault as much as anyone else, but she also wanted to ensure that they weren't about to dive into an innocent family's house on impulse.

" _Guy works in a bank; if you had kids that you liked, would you really want to hang around there any longer than you had to_?" Bobby countered.

"Good point," Deanna said, smiling briefly at the admittedly poor joke before she took a deep breath and focused on her immediate target. "All right; call Bela and I'll join you in a moment."

As Bobby terminated the call at his end, Deanna reached back to grab her equipment before she ran out of the car and hurried towards the house; their goal of exorcism rather than just eliminating the demon might be more dangerous, but when the host couldn't have been taken too soon, they had to at least try to get the demon out safely. As she rounded the corner to approach the house, she smiled briefly at the sight of Bobby already standing there while Bela hurried up from the other side, but the smile faltered when she saw Bobby grimly holding up what she recognised as a portable EMF meter like the one created by her grandsons; the readings made it clear that there was a demon in the vicinity.

"He's in there?" Bela asked, indicating the house.

"He's in there," Bobby said grimly.

"Well then," Deanna said, holding the bottle of holy water with a grim smile, "let's get started, shall we?"

As the other two hunters nodded in agreement, Deanna turned towards the door, but thoughts of a quieter method of entry were interrupted when all three of them heard a scream from the upper storey. As Bobby and Bela pulled out their weapons, Deanna kicked the door in as hard as she could- you didn't marry into the Campbell family without picking up a few tricks along the way- and charged up the stairs. With two doors facing the back of the house locked and another one clearly just a bathroom, it wasn't hard to identify the source of the scream, the three hunters entering the room to find a man in a suit kneeling on a bed, leaning over a young blonde girl who was staring up at the man in obvious terror…

" _Leave her alone_!" Bela yelled, her gun out in front of her and aimed at the man who had to be the demon they were after, Deanna and Bobby quickly following suit.

"Well well well," the man said, grinning as he looked at the youngest of the three Hunters facing him, the girl left shaking on her bed as he stood up to face them more directly. "Little Abby… what a delightful surprise…"

"It's _Bela_ ," Bela said firmly.

"Oh, a rose by any other name and all that," the man said, eyes flashing black as he looked her over, a sadistic smirk on his face. "It's too bad I can't spare the time to enjoy this, but it would throw this whole thing off-balance; business before pleasure, after all."

"Business?" Bobby repeated, tightening his grip on the gun as he glared at their adversary. "What 'business' are you talkin' about?"

"I'd tell you, but you're not going to survive long enough for it to matter," the demon said, grinning as he raised one hand…

Praying that this would work- they'd hoped to have more time to set something up, but they'd been prepared for the worst-case-scenarios as well- Deanna pulled out a mirror with a devil's trap carved into it and aimed a pocket torch at the glass. The reflection of the light that it created spread a basic devil's trap on the ground around the demon, temporarily immobilising it as Bobby began to chant an exorcism. With the demon's powers confined, it was unable to mount any kind of effective assault against Bobby itself, leaving the creature that had once been Bela's father with nothing to do but glare angrily at the woman that had once been its daughter.

"You think this changes anything, Abby?" he asked mockingly. "You're still the dirty slut-"

" _You_ wanted it," Bela spat contemptuously at him as Bobby continued to chant; the demon didn't have to be paying full attention to the exorcism so long as the ritual was audible. "I never-"

"Oh, but you were just _asking_ for it…" the demon smirked, eyes flashing black as he looked at her. "Your sweet little body, begging for my touch… all those pleasures your mother denied me when I showed her where she belonged-"

"You were a monster _before_ you were a demon, weren't you?" Deanna said, glaring coldly at the creature before her, resisting the urge to shoot it; what mattered right now was saving the father from what he'd been about to do, not satisfying her urge to make it suffer.

Fortunately, she was saved from having to make that call when the exorcism Bobby was reciting came to an end, forcing the demon to reel backwards as smoke erupted from his host's mouth. For a moment, it was a normal exorcism, but then the room filled with an unexpected glow and a shrill noise of some sort that Deanna couldn't identify, and the demon smoke seemed to move far quicker than demons usually moved after an exorcism before it vanished.

Before Deanna could ask what had happened, the sound of wings filled the air behind them, the three hunters turning around to see a familiar figure in a trenchcoat crouching down beside the demon's unconscious meatsuit and laying a hand on his forehead, repeating the process with the still-trembling little girl on the bed before he turned to look at them.

"Hello," he said, standing back up as he spoke.

"Castiel?" Bela said, looking at the angel in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"Assisting you," Castiel replied.

"Assisting us?" Bobby repeated, clearly unnerved to hear Bela identity this man in a trenchcoat as the angel he'd only heard about up until now. "Why now?"

"Seals are our priority," Castiel replied as he looked over at the older Hunter. "Why should I not get involved in your attempt to save this one?"

"Hold on; this was a _seal_?" Bela repeated, staring at the angel in new shock.

"The Sevenfold Destruction of a Sacred Bond," Castiel explained, nodding at the thief-turned-hunter. "The demon that was your father was selected to break this Seal due to your own role in assisting us; his personal history made him… uniquely qualified to do so."

A glance at Bela was all that Deanna needed to recognise that this topic was going to be particularly difficult for her; her father had clearly been hard for her to discuss even when he was dead, but to think about the fact that he was back on Earth as a demon…

"But… we stopped him breaking it, right?" Bobby asked (He wasn't going to bring up the fact that a pentagram would have ten points; so long as the outer five were established, the demon could have just attacked anyone at a couple of the intersecting points and it would have worked).

"You have stopped him from breaking it," Castiel confirmed. "The Seal required that seven fathers should rape their daughters; only four have suffered such a fate, so the Seal is safe, and the demon will not have time to take another host-"

"How can you be sure?" Deanna asked sharply.

"Because of this," Castiel said, crouching down once and holding up the ex-meatsuit's left arm, revealing a strange insigil tattooed just below the wrist.

"What's that?" Deanna asked.

"A ward," Castiel explained. "It rendered the host undetectable by us as long as the demon remained within him; he could leave on his own and retain its power for a few minutes, but as long as he was concealed by this sigil, we could not find and exorcise him ourselves."

"Allowing him to jump from one body to the next without you being able to catch him between acts?" Bela asked.

"Precisely," Castiel confirmed. "If he left his host on his own, the mark would have departed with him and been infused to his essence long enough for him to transfer it to his next body, but now that you have banished him ahead of schedule, he will have to flee or risk being caught, and I have already dispatched some of my garrison in pursuit of him."

"So… he can't do this any more?" Bela asked.

"This town is now under observation and the time-frame in which this Seal can be broken will expire in less than a week," Castiel explained. "Even if he manages to evade the angels I have sent after him and find another host, he will be unable to complete the pattern in time to break the Seal."

"Oh," Bela said, forcing down her initial anxiety at the news that her now-demonic father might manage to escape his pursuers and return to go after her some other time. "Well… that's… something."

"Except for the kids," Bobby said, his tone grim as he looked back at the house that they'd just left. "Those girls are never going to be able to trust their fathers…"

"Don't worry so much about it," Deanna said, smiling slightly at the older hunter. "It's going to be tough for them to adapt, I'm not going to ignore that, but if I've learned anything over the years, it's that children can be resilient even if they weren't raised as hunters; add in the fact that the fathers don't remember what they did and will _never_ do it again, and they've got a chance to sort out their relationship."

"If it troubles you, I can erase the memory of these last two targets of what has taken place," Castiel said, indicating the still-unconscious bodies lying around them. "The first four of the seven have already reported their assaults, and must be left to endure what has been done, but erasing their memories will ensure that knowledge of the Apocalypse remains limited."

"You can do that?" Deanna said, looking at Castiel in surprise before she shook her head with a sheepish smile. "Right… angel. Sorry, I'm still not that used to it…"

"Understandable," Castiel said, nodding at her before he turned around and crouched down to touch both would-be victims on the forehead before he vanished, leaving the three hunters to look awkwardly at each other.

They might wish that the other children could lose their memories of what had happened, but they could understand why Castiel couldn't do that; they did what they could to protect the wider world from learning about what was really out there, but sometimes all you could do was clean up the mess left behind.

As though going along with an unmade plan they'd made earlier, the three of them turned and left the house, closing the door behind them- the lock damage wasn't too obvious; if they positioned it properly the door should look as though it was still closed- before they walked over to Bobby's car on the other side of the road, Bela getting in the back as Bobby and Deanna took the front seats before turning around to look at her.

"So…" Bela said, looking uncertainly at the two older Hunters. "Is there… I mean, you…"

"Bela," Deanna said, looking sympathetically at the younger woman, "if you honestly think we're going to condemn you for making a deal because you wanted to get away from… well, from what I can only consider a living nightmare… you really don't understand us that well."

"She's right," Bobby said, smiling at the two women. "We've run into a few people who made deals over the years, and we might not always approve of them _making_ the deals, but we don't condemn 'em if they did it because they were for the right reasons."

"The right reasons?" Bela asked, looking at Bobby with an expression that somehow made her seem so much younger than Deanna had ever seen her appear before.

"They did it to save someone else or to… well, to get out of the kind of situation you got stuck in," Bobby explained, looking at her with a slightly grim yet understanding smile. "I mean, considering the age you were at when your parents bought it, and given that your background didn't give the impression you knew much about the life, I'm thinkin' you didn't just go out and make the deal yourself?"

"No…" Bela said, shaking her head uncertainly. "I was just… sitting on the swings… and the demon… came to me."

"Huh," Bobby said, looking at the younger woman thoughtfully, before a glance from Deanna told him not to take that line of inquiry any further; she believed that Bela was telling the truth, and it was unlikely that any kind of questioning would reveal why Bela had been specifically 'targeted' by a demon looking to make a deal.

As Dean had noted once, demons were often harder to track because they didn't operate by human standards; the usual rules couldn't apply as all they wanted was to kill people, but even the most experienced hunters couldn't always be certain if the demons they were up against were simply trying to kill people or if they were planning something bigger that nobody was seeing yet.

"But… how can you both be so _calm_ about this?" Bela asked, looking between them both in shock. "After everything Sam and Dean said about family first… and I _killed_ my parents-"

"I killed my dad."

The sentence was delivered in such a blunt manner that it took Deanna and Bela a moment to realise that Bobby had actually said it.

"Excuse me?" Bela said, looking at Bobby incredulously. " _You_ killed your father?"

"The man was an ass who beat my mother and broke things so that he could lord it over us that he was in charge; the man deserved everything he got," Bobby said firmly, his head turned and his gaze fixed on the street outside, as though he couldn't bear to look at the two women listening to his story. "He kept on passing the buck onto my mother and me for making him do all that shit, and in the end I just shot the ass with his own gun…"

"Oh my God…" Deanna said, looking at the older hunter in shock.

"And then my mother told me that God would punish me for it," Bobby added, shaking his head in exasperation. "Trust me, it wasn't a good day by any definition."

He sat in silence for a moment, giving the women time to process what he'd just revealed, before he continued. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all for us staying out of human shit when we're hunting unless we absolutely have to- cops are there to handle the standard human nutjob, after all- but sometimes, you find some humans who can be more twisted than the lowest demon… and nobody's goin' to blame you for takin' action."

"He's right, Bela," Deanna said, turning around to look reassuringly at the younger woman. "You made a mistake, but you've already spent time in Hell because of it; you're trying to help us now, and that's all that matters."

For a moment Bela just sat in silence before she got out of the car, opened Deanna's door, and practically fell into the older woman's arms, her usual composure forgotten as she sobbed into Deanna's shoulder, Deanna embracing her in a comforting hug while Bobby looked on with a slight smile.

This case had been complicated for more reasons than he'd expected, but in a strange way, after sharing their secrets…

Call him presumptuous, but Bobby had a feeling that he was making the first few steps to gaining a daughter the same way he'd gained his sons, all those long years ago…


	19. Tracking Anna Milton

Looking at the hospital building in front of her, Bela wondered if this had been as smart a decision as it had seemed when they had decided to follow it up.

Reports of unusual environmental activity in the area around a specific psychiatric hospital normally wouldn't have set up many red flags, but after Deanna and Bela had taken a few days off to emotionally recuperate after the events of their last hunt- Bobby would have stayed with them, but something had come in the Caribbean that required his attention- it had seemed like a good opportunity to check out something potentially low-key. After all, even if the evidence suggested a demonic presence, it also suggested that the demons hadn't even killed anyone yet, so they were probably just conducting surveillance on something inside; if they could track down what the demons were looking for, they might be able to move it somewhere more secret…

It was only when she saw the distinctive form of a very particular Impala in the hospital parking lot that Bela realised that things were about to get a lot more complicated; Sam and Dean's presence might not automatically indicate that they were after something difficult, but with the Apocalypse on the go and Dean's apparently important role in the first she doubted that they'd take on anything minor at a time like this…

For a moment, she thought about trying to get out of this hunt- Bobby and Deanna had promised to keep her personal history secret for the moment, but she knew she'd have to tell Sam and Dean the truth eventually- but then Dean and Sam walked out of the hospital, and she knew that they'd just lost any chance to back out.

"Dean?" Deanna said, walking over to meet with her grandsons as they turned towards the carpark.

"Wh… Gran?" Dean said, looking at the older woman in surprise before he registered her companion. "Bela? What are you two doing here?"

"Investigating demonic activity around this hospital," Deanna replied. "How about you?"

"Tracking Anna Milton," Sam answered.

"Anna Milton?" Bela repeated.

"She was a patient here," Sam explained, indicating the hospital behind them. "We received a tip that demons were interested in her and came here to follow it up, but… when we got here, it turned out she'd escaped a few days ago."

"A patient escaped?" Deanna said, looking at her grandson in surprise. "I didn't read anything about _that_ …"

"Hospital probably didn't want to publicise the fact that they can't keep someone contained," Dean said, shrugging slightly. "You were tracking the omens, huh?"

"We thought it might be something worth investigating, and it didn't seem like they were actually doing anything _serious_ at the time…" Bela explained weakly.

"You wanted something light after stopping a Seal, huh?" Dean finished, smiling at Bela in understanding. "Don't blame you; our last case after we dealt with Samhain just involved a wishing well."

Bela glanced over at Deanna in surprise at the news that Sam and Dean knew they'd tackled a Seal, but the brief shake of her head that Deanna gave her was sufficient to answer Bela's main question; neither she or Bobby had mentioned the most personal part of that case to the Winchesters.

"So," Deanna said, evidently wanting to turn the conversation away from discussing the saved Seal, "what is it about Anna Milton that's so interesting?"

"We're still working on that," Sam said. "According to her supervising psychologist, Anna Milton was a happy, well-adjusted journalism major with a church deacon as a father and lots of friends, and then she just…"

"She flipped," Dean finished for his brother. "According to the doctor, anyway; since her 'delusions' included the claim that demons were everywhere, and her sketch book featured notes about the Raising of the Witnesses and the near-release of Samhain, I think we can safely say that there's more going on here than a breakdown."

"She knew about the Seals?" Bela asked.

"She even knew that the devil was going to rise up," Dean confirmed. "However she knows this stuff, she also knocked out an orderly with at least eighty pounds on her with a great deal of force- he's using that to explain why he can't even remember entering her room, although Sam and I are thinking he was possessed- and now she's on the run; we were just going to check out her family home and see what we can find."

"Sounds like a plan," Deanna said with a smile. "Shall we follow you?"

"More the merrier," Dean agreed as he indicated the car park where their two vehicles were parked. "Let's get moving."

* * *

The subsequent attempt to track Anna Milton down proved to be more frustrating than they were expecting. By the time they'd arrived at the Milton family home, both of Anna's parents had been killed, their throats slit with no trace of evidence beyond a trace of sulphur around the bodies, and no sign of Anna either. Fortunately, some quick searching was all that they needed to determine that the most likely location for them to find her would be her father's old church, based on photographs around the house and sketches of a distinctive stained-glass window in Anna's journal; as Sam put it, if you were scared, religious, and facing an unknown number of demons, where else would you go but a church?  
  
Eventually, the four of them arrived in the upper area of the church, weapons drawn in case of an attack, and it didn't take long to identify the girl they were looking for, hiding behind a stained-glass window of an angel.  
  
"Anna?" Sam said, the group putting their guns away as the youngest hunter stepped forward to address the girl. "We're not gonna hurt you. We're here to help. My name is Sam. This is my brother, Dean-"  
  
"Sam?" the girl who was apparently Anna interrupted. "Not Sam Winchester?"  
  
"Uh… yeah," Sam said.  
  
"And you're Dean?" Anna said as she walked out from behind the window, revealing a red-haired girl, apparently a couple of years younger than Sam, dressed in a casual dark green jacket and jeans over a slightly frilled white shirt. "The Dean?"  
  
"Well, yeah," Dean said (Bela didn't know why hearing that term applied to Dean made her feel so frustrated; Dean was nothing more to her than the man she got out of Hell with), smiling slightly at the term. "The Dean, I guess."  
  
"And you're… Bela Talbot and Deanna Campbell?" Anna asked, looking uncertainly at the two women. "The woman who got out of Hell and the woman from the past…"  
  
"Yeah…" Bela said, looking awkwardly at her.  
  
"It's really you…" Anna said, walking slowly towards them, her gaze fixed on Dean. "Oh my God, the angels talk about you all. You two were in Hell, but Castiel pulled you out, and some of them think you can help save us, and most of them don't like that Bela's here… and they're _really_ not that sure about Deanna being here… They talk about you all the time lately; I feel like I know you all."  
  
"So… you talk to the angels?" Dean asked.  
  
"Oh no," Anna said, shaking her head firmly. "No way; they probably don't even know I exist. I just kind of… overhear them."  
  
"Overhear the angels?" Bela said in surprise; after what had happened when Castiel had tried to address her and Dean directly in the past, the idea that someone could listen to that by accident was surprising and slightly disturbing.  
  
"I just… hear them in my head," Anna explained, indicating her head uncertainly. "They talk, and… I hear it."  
  
"Are you hearing them now?" Deanna asked.  
  
"Not right this second, but a lot," Anna answered. "I can't shut them out, there are so many of them…"  
  
"So they locked you up with a case of the crazies when you were really just… tapping into Angel FM?" Dean asked.  
  
"Yes," Anna said, smiling at Dean. "Thank you."  
  
"When did this start?" Bela asked.  
  
"I can tell you exactly," Anna replied. "September 18th."  
  
" _What_?" Bela said, looking sharply at Dean in shock, each of them recognising the date. "But that's-"  
  
"The day you both got out of Hell," Anna said, nodding at them in acknowledgement. "It was the first thing I heard, clear as a bell; 'Dean Winchester and Bela Talbot are saved'."  
  
"Huh," Bela said, before she looked over at the rest of their small group, lowering her voice. "So… what do you think?"  
  
"It's above my pay grade," Sam said apologetically.  
  
"Well, at least now we know why demons are after you," Dean said, as he turned back to Anna. "They get a hold of you, they can hear everything the other side's cooking. You're 1-900-angel."  
  
"Hey," Anna added, after exchanging a smile with Dean, "do you know- are my parents OK? I- I didn't go home, I was afraid…"  
  
Further conversation was interrupted when a brunette hurried up the stairs, Bela only needing a moment to recognise the girl as the demon, Ruby, that Sam had been performing an exorcism with when she and Dean had introduced him to Deanna.  
  
"You got the girl," Ruby said, apparently unconcerned about Bela and Deanna's presence. "Good; let's go."  
  
"Her face-!" Anna screamed, staring at Ruby in horror.  
  
"It's OK," Sam said, looking reassuringly at Anna. "She's here to help."  
  
"Jury's out on that one," Dean noted, glancing over at the two female hunters.  
  
"We have to hurry," Ruby said, looking impatiently at the four of them, clearly ignoring Dean's comment.  
  
"Why?" Dean asked.  
  
"Because a demon's coming," Ruby said, glaring in frustration at the hunters. "We can fight later, Dean; this guy's a big-timer."  
  
"Well, that's pretty convenient," Dean said, looking sceptically at Ruby. "Showing up right when we find the girl with some bigwig on your tale?"  
  
"I didn't bring him here," Ruby said. "You did."  
  
"What?" Deanna asked.  
  
"He followed you all from the girl's house," Ruby explained, looking impatiently at them. "Talk later; we've got to go now!"  
  
"Sounds like a plan," Deanna said, nodding in agreement at Ruby's assessment.  
  
"Dean," Sam said, indicating a nearby statue of what looked like the Virgin Mary that had started crying what Bela could only hope just looked like blood from its eyes. Bela didn't know much about omens- she had generally tried to avoid dealing with anything actively supernatural in her prior career, after all- but she was fairly sure something like that couldn't be good.  
  
"It's too late," Ruby said, confirming Bela's fears. "He's here."  
  
"OK," Sam said, quickly taking Anna by the arm and moving her to a closet in a corner of the attic. "Stay in there; don't move."  
  
"OK," Anna said, her voice low as she moved into the closet, Deanna and Bela taking up positions a short distance from the closer; near enough to defend if anything tried to go for the closet, but not so obvious that it would be quickly apparent that they were guarding something specific.  
  
"No, Sam," Ruby said, glaring at Sam as he took a flask of holy water out of his jacket and walked up in front of Dean and the demon. "You've got to pull him right away."  
  
"Whoa, hold on a sec-" Dean began.  
  
"Now's not the time to bellyache about Sam going darkside," Ruby interrupted, glaring indignantly at Dean. "He does his thing, he exorcises that demon, or we die."  
  
Bela briefly wondered why Ruby wasn't mentioning Bela's own unusual abilities, but the thought was only fleeting before she stopped herself asking the question; she was still unclear on exactly what she could do without tapping into her demonic side more than she was comfortable with, and she certainly wasn't about to let a demon know that she was part-demon herself if she could help it, regardless of how much Sam apparently trusted her. She briefly glanced over at Dean to mime a gun, but the shake of Dean's head confirmed what she'd suspected; Dean didn't have the Colt on him right now and he was unwilling to let Ruby know that they had recovered it.  
  
Right now, all they could do was hope that conventional bullets and the demon-killing knife would be enough to deal with something that was as powerful as Ruby seemed to be implying their imminent opponent would be…  
  
As Sam put the flask back in his pocket, the sound of footsteps from the other side of the door was just audible, culminating in the door being practically punched open as a well-built man in a dark jacket and light blue shirt walked in, brushing dust off the banister as he looked disdainfully at the five people in front of him. As Sam raised his hand, Bela noticed the demon's eyes turn white- _that_ couldn't be good; even if this demon wasn't Lilith, he was apparently in her power-level at least- as he raised one hand to his throat, but then the moment passed as the demon's eyes returned to human normal.  
  
"That tickles," the demon said, coughing slightly as though trying to clear an uncomfortable throat. "You don't have the juice to take me on, Sam."  
  
The other hunters had already drawn their weapons, but it was clear that the effort wasn't going to be enough; the demon simply clenched one hand, and Sam was sent hurtling forwards to land on the other side of the door, followed by the painful sound of him falling down the stairs. Bela and Deanna fired a couple of their weapons, but the bullets seemed to do little more than annoy the demon as he turned to look at them. Drawing the demon-killing knife, Dean charged at their foe, but the demon simply grabbed Dean's knife-wielding hand and parried his attempt to punch with the other hand, leaving the two combatants too close together for Bela or Deanna to risk a shot.  
  
"Hello again, Dean," the demon said, grinning at Dean before he rammed him into a nearby pillar. Hearing the sound of screams behind her, Bela glanced back to see Ruby dragging Anna out of the closet, but Deanna hurried over to the younger two women before Bela could do anything, leaving Bela to focus on the fight, her gun raised as she waited for an opportunity to shoot that wouldn't hurt Dean (Right now the demon could still potentially dive to the side if she fired anything; white-eyed demons meant more power, after all).  
  
"Come on, Dean," the demon said, a punch to the face making Dean release his grip on the knife as Bela stared impotently at them. "Don't you recognise me? Oh, I forgot; I'm wearing a paediatrician. But we were so close… in Hell."  
  
"Oh no…" Bela said, eyes widening as the identity of their foe came to her in a flash of inspiration.  
  
Her memories of Hell might still be vague, but she clearly remembered who Dean had been said to spend most of his time in Hell with…  
  
"Alastair," Dean said grimly.  
  
They were dealing with Hell's chief torturer…  
  
The confrontation was interrupted when Sam reappeared, lunging forward to stab Alastair with Ruby's knife, but the blade, despite its generally flawless track record when used against demons so far, simply remained in Alastair's shoulder, sparkling with energy even as the demon remained standing.  
  
"You're gonna have to try a whole lot harder than that-" Alastair began, turning to look mockingly at Sam before Bela, terrified at the prospect of what Alastair could do to them if given the chance, thrust her right hand forward. A surge of her inexplicable power threw Alastair back into the wall behind him, the knife practically tearing itself out of his body to return to Bela's hand before she doubled over, clutching at her burning right shoulder even as she kept a grip on the knife.  
  
She hadn't been able to exorcise him, but what she'd just done had saved their weapon and knocked Alastair off-balance; that _had_ to be enough for now…  
  
With Ruby, Deanna and Anna having apparently vanished while they were occupied with the fight, Bela was almost relieved when Dean grabbed her by the shoulders and led her in leaping through the stained-glass window, followed closely by Sam; it might not be the most dignified exit, but considering who'd nearly caught them and the ache in her shoulder, Bela would take any break she could get.  
  
She might not be fully comfortable with her powers, but if they kept on being this useful, she was just finding more reasons to appreciate Castiel's aid…


	20. Reminiscence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise in advance if Dean and Sam's conversation regarding Sam's time with Ruby doesn't work out; it was tricky to decide how best to incorporate flashback-related material

"Well," Sam said, wincing as he examined a cut in his left arm while Dean cleaned up in the bathroom, Bela changing her own attire in the room just beside theirs, "that could have gone better…"

"You think?" Dean said, glaring at his brother in exasperation. "We just lost our grandmother and the girl we were supposed to save to the demon, and now Alastair's walking around topside; only way it could have gone worse is if someone had died there!"

"Who's Alastair, anyway?" Sam asked.

"No one good," Dean said grimly, deliberately looking away from Sam as he spoke. "Right now, we've got to find Anna and Gran, and that demon bitch of yours…"

"Ruby's got her; I'm sure she's OK," Sam said firmly.

"You sure about Ruby?" Dean asked, turning around to look at Sam. "'Cause I think it's just as likely she used us to find radio girl and then brought that demon in to kill us."

"No, she took Anna and… Gran… to keep them safe," Sam said (He was still awkward about discussing that relationship, not that Dean could blame him; even with the time-travel angle, it was weird thinking of a woman only a few years over than them as their _grand_ parent).

"Yeah?" Dean said sceptically. "Well, why hasn't she called to tell us where she is?"

"Because that demon is probably watching us right now, waiting to follow us right back to Anna again," Sam countered firmly. "That's why he let us go."

"You call this letting us go?" Dean said, now glaring at his brother. "As I recall, Bela threw him off-"

"Yeah, if we're talking about that, how come you aren't getting angry at _her_ about using her abilities?" Sam said, standing up to stare back at Dean. "You call me out on trying to save people by exorcising demons with what _I_ can do, but Bela throws people through walls-"

"Cas told us those abilities are limited and she's not training with a demon to improve it; don't know about you, but the second bit helps me feel better, anyway," Dean said, glaring at Sam for a moment before he changed the subject; he might trust the angel when he said that what he'd done would prevent Bela from turning into a demon, particularly when he remembered Castiel's obvious distaste for Sam's abilities, but that didn't mean it was his place to talk about Bela's powers without her here. "Why do you trust her so much?"

"You mean Ruby, right?" Sam asked.

"'Course I mean Ruby; I already _know_ why we can trust Bela," Dean said (He'd skimmed over his explanation for his new faith in Bela when he was talking with Sam during that mess with the rugaru, but that had been enough for Sam at the time; he understood that there were some things you didn't share). "Look, I'm not trying to pick a fight here; I really want to understand, but I need to… I _deserve_ to know more."

"Because… she saved my life," Sam said after a brief pause.

"Saved your life?" Dean repeated. "How?"

"When I met Ruby after… your contract expired… she and another demon had been let out of Hell specifically to find and kill me," Sam explained. "Lilith had been convinced to give her another chance to get back in the demons' good books by killing me, but Ruby killed her partner instead and got me to safety."

"And that was it?" Dean asked. "You trusted her because she saved your life once?"

"No," Sam replied, shaking his head. "Actually, when she told me that she still couldn't get you out of Hell, and then when I asked her about her new body and she told me it was some local secretary… well, I told her to leave both of us, and she did."

"She ditched her host?" Dean said, surprised despite himself. "So… if you wouldn't work with her then, who's she walking around in now and why's that make a difference?"

"Her current body was a Jane Doe," Sam replied. "Ruby provided me with all the relevant paperwork around her body when she came back to me, and I double-checked everything; the host you've seen her in was in a bad car accident a few months before I met her, officially listed as a Jane Doe with nobody coming to claim her, and doctors had just been about to take her off life-support when Ruby took her body."

"Ah," Dean said, nodding slightly at Sam, grateful that at least one of his fears had been dealt with; even if he didn't approve of his brother working with a demon, at least he'd made sure that the demon wasn't using anyone else to get around.

"So," Sam continued, "with her settled into a safe host, and Lilith now after both of us, she told me that she'd teach me how to use my powers so that we could stop her."

"And?" Dean asked. "What'd she teach you?"

"Well, the first thing I learned… I'm a crappy student," Sam said, his tone sounding slightly amused at the memory. "Our initial attempts at an exorcism using just my abilities failed and I often ended up having to kill otherwise healthy hosts with the knife in self-defence. Ruby tried to help me get over it, encourage me to move past what happened with you so that I could focus on stopping Lilith, and, well…"

Sam at least had the decency to look embarrassed at his current confession. "One thing led to another, and the other thing led to-"

"Sam?" Dean said sharply.

"Yeah?"

"Too much information."

"Hey, I told you I was coming clean-" Sam began.

"And now I feel dirty and am _really_ glad I asked you about this without the girls here," Dean said (What did it say about him that he was thinking of Bela and his grandmother as 'the girls', especially when thinking of them individually inspired very different emotions…?). "OK, well, uh, brain-stabbing imagery aside, so far all I'm getting a picture of is a manipulative bitch who literally screwed you, may be playing mind games with you, and did everything in the book to get you to go bad."

"Yeah, well, there's more to the story," Sam said.

"Just… skip the nudity, then," Dean said firmly.

"Pretty soon after… that," Sam continued, "I put together some signs… omens."

"Saying what?" Dean asked.

"Lilith was in town," Sam answered. "And I wanted to strike her first."

"And how did Ruby feel about that?" Dean asked.

"She was against it," Sam replied. "She accused me of… well, she basically said I was so focused on trying to kill Lilith that I wasn't ready to accept that I wasn't ready to stop her yet. I went in anyway, and…"

"And?" Dean asked promptingly.

"Ruby was right," Sam said, his tone grim at the memory. "I found the house that was meant to be Lilith's location- a couple of demons were throwing some twisted party for a little girl they'd abducted- but it turned out to be a trap, and I walked right into it; if Ruby hadn't shown up, I would have died right then, but she killed one of the demons and fought the other while I got the girl out, before I came back to stop her attacker."

"Saved her from her own stupidity, huh?" Dean said.

"Ruby came back for me," Sam said firmly. "Whatever you have to say, she saved me. More than that, she got through to me. What she said to me... It's what you would've said. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here."

Dean couldn't be sure how to feel about that; the idea of a _demon_ serving as his 'replacement' while Sam was absent…

"Housekeeping," a voice said from the other side of their door, saving Dean from having to respond to that revelation; the idea of owing his life to an angel was something he could just about stomach, but the idea of owing something to a demon that had taken his place in Sam's life, even if it was only because he couldn't have been there himself…

"What?" he asked, opening the door to look at the overweight maid on the other side in surprise. "You couldn't just… leave the towels at the door or something?"

"I'm at this address," the maid said, walking into their room and pulling the curtains before handing Sam a note.

"I'm sorry; what?" Sam said, just as confused as Dean was at the apparent non-sequiter.

"Go now," the maid said firmly. "Go through the bathroom window, don't stop, don't take your car, don't pass go; there are demons in the hallway and in the parking lot."

"Ruby?" Sam said, realisation striking him at the same time as Dean realised the truth.

"OK, yes, so I'm possessing this maid for a hot minute," the maid-now-identified-as-Ruby said. "Sue me."

"What about-?" Sam began.

"Coma girl?" the maid/Ruby interrupted. "Slowly rotting on the floor back at the cabin with Anna and the older woman, so I've got to hurry back-"

"Once you've given Bela the message," Dean interjected, looking firmly at the maid; whatever doubts he had about Ruby, Bela had been through enough so far for him to at least be fairly sure he could trust her.

"Of course," the maid said. "See you when you get there. Go!"

As the maid left the room, there was really nothing more that Sam and Dean could do beyond exchange glances before heading for the bathroom window and hope that Bela would follow them shortly.

* * *

As she sat in the abandoned cabin, waiting for her grandsons and the woman she was coming to consider a close friend to arrive, Deanna wondered what Samuel would have thought of the way she was living her life these days.  
  
On the one hand, she was keeping up with the 'family business' of hunting creatures, spirits and demons, but on the other hand she had to wonder what he'd think of Sam and Dean as hunters; the boys were skilled, no doubt about that, but they had a fundamental independence to them that she wasn't sure Samuel would have approved of.  
  
As much as she'd loved her husband, his fundamental problem as a man and a hunter had been his 'need' to ensure that everything was under control. He could mostly accept it when hunts didn't go according to plan- the kind of things they ended up facing in their line of work didn't always play by conventional rules, after all- but he had always had trouble accepting when something took place in real life that went against his wishes; she'd had several arguments with him regarding Mary finding her way in the world outside of her role in their hunts.  
  
In a sense, it reflected what Dean had once said when discussing some of the past hunts he and Sam had gone on that ended up tracking particularly twisted humans; Samuel hadn't liked the idea of his daughter going out into the everyday world because he couldn't be sure of the rules. Deanna had appreciated his perspective, but she'd never entirely agreed with it; you couldn't expect someone to be an on-call hunter twenty-four-seven for the rest of their lives, after all.  
  
Quite frankly, she doubted that Samuel would have coped with this whole situation; he'd probably have simply tried to kill Ruby the moment she showed up, and then that other demon could have taken them by surprise. Deanna might agree with Dean that Ruby wasn't entirely trustworthy, but for the moment the female demon hadn't done anything to suggest that she was going to try and kill them, and seemed to be genuinely interested in keeping her grandsons alive- even if Sam was her obvious focus- so Deanna was going to focus on that until further notice.  
  
"Are you all right?" she asked, looking over at Anna after the two of them had sat in silence for a time; Ruby was waiting by the door, officially to guard them from potential attack, even if Deanna was fairly sure that she was mainly doing it because Anna could apparently Ruby's 'demon' face (Deanna had never understood how that would work; every demon she'd ever encountered was formless without a host, so what would a demon face _look_ like?) and it made the other girl uncomfortable.  
  
"Just…" Anna began, looking up at her with a weak smile that quickly collapsed as she stared at the ground. "Oh God… my _parents_ …"  
  
"I know how you feel," Deanna said, looking sympathetically at the younger girl, reaching over to give her a comforting squeeze on the nearest arm; she would have given most things if she could have spared Anna that news, but when Anna asked to call her parents, Deanna felt it best to reveal the truth. "I lost my husband and my daughter… well, a couple of months ago for me, over thirty years for the rest of the world… and even if I've appreciated the chance to see this world and meet my grandchildren…"  
  
She didn't finish that sentence, but she also knew that she didn't have to; whatever she gained in this world didn't entirely make up for what she had lost.  
  
"But I don't even know _why_ …" Anna said, looking back at Deanna in tearful frustration. "I just started hearing angels for no reason and now my parents are _dead_ …"  
  
As Anna began to sob, Deanna was left with nothing else to do but take Anna in an awkward hug, trying not to remember how she'd used to do this for Mary, mere months and three decades ago…  
  
Mary was dead, and as much as Anna needed her right now, she did _not_ need Deanna trying to use her as a substitute. She could offer comfort, but she wasn't going to get overly attached; if Dean and Sam's history didn't show how bad an idea it was to give demons any kind of hold over you, she didn't know what would, and the last thing she wanted was to start wishing that Mary was back.  
  
Sometimes, dead was dead, and that should be that…  
  
Her potentially morbid train of thought was broken when she heard footsteps approaching the cabin, prompting her to get up and help Anna to her feet as Ruby walked in to join them, her casual attitude confirming the lack of hostile forces even before Sam, Dean and Bela walked in.  
  
"Glad you could make it," Ruby said briefly.  
  
"Yeah, thanks," Dean said briefly, before he looked at Deanna and Anna. "You two OK?"  
  
"Yeah, I think so," Anna said, nodding awkwardly. "Ruby's not like other demons; she saved my life."  
  
"Yeah, I hear she does that," Dean said, before he turned to look awkwardly at Ruby. "I guess I… you know…"  
  
"What?" Ruby asked.  
  
"I guess I owe you for… Sam," Dean said, weakly indicating his brother. "And I just wanted… you know…"  
  
"Don't strain yourself," Ruby said with a brief shake of her head.  
  
"OK, then; is the moment over?" Dean asked, Ruby responding with a brief nod. "Good, 'cause that was awkward."  
  
"Everything's awkward," Deanna said, smiling over at her grandson. "We have so many missing families right now, and no idea why this is even happening to Anna…"  
  
"They're coming," Anna suddenly said, looking sharply up as though hearing something.  
  
"Back room," Dean said, indicating the door at the back of the cabin, Sam quickly moving Anna to safety as Dean drew the knife in preparation for a fight, Deanna and Bela arming themselves with other weapons from the bag (Deanna considered and discarded the idea of using the Colt; she might not trust Crowley, )…  
  
When the door opened as a burst of wind filled the cabin, fading away to reveal Castiel and Uriel standing before them, Deanna wondered if they had been over-cautious; Ruby had obvious reason to be concerned about angels, but surely _they_ would be more understanding about whatever Anna had become…  
  
"Please tell me you're here to help," Dean said, clearly exhausted after everything else they'd been up against in the last few hours. "We've been having demon issues all day."  
  
"I can see that," Uriel said, glaring at Ruby as she stood beside them. "You want to explain why you have that stain in the room?"  
  
"She saved our lives," Deanna said, glaring at Uriel. "Maybe she's a demon, but I didn't see _you_ helping us escape when we were cornered by Alastair…"  
  
"This is not important," Castiel interjected, raising a hand in a halting gesture. "We are here for Anna."  
  
"Here for her like... here for her?" Dean asked.  
  
"Stop talking," Uriel said, ignoring Dean's request for clarification. "Give her to us."  
  
"Why?" Bela asked, looking sharply at the angels.  
  
"She has to die," Castiel said in response.  
  
Bela blinked.  
  
"Excuse me?" she said, staring at the angel incredulously. "You want to _kill_ her?"  
  
"Out of the way," Uriel said, ignoring Bela's shocked question.  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Dean protested, moving to stand in front of the other angel. "OK, I know she's wiretapping your angel chats or whatever, but it's no reason to gank her."  
  
"Don't worry," Uriel said with a worrying smirk. "I'll kill her gentle-"  
  
"The key word in that sentence is 'kill'," Bela said, stepping forward to glare at Uriel, forcing down her fear as she stared at him. "Dean's right; there has to be another way than killing an innocent girl!"  
  
"She is far from innocent-" Castiel began.  
  
"And that matters to you _now_?" Bela protested, looking pleadingly at the angel; she had no idea why she was saying this, but the thought of Castiel as nothing more than Heaven's blunt instrument after his previously-expressed doubts felt wrong to her on so many levels. "Castiel, you saved _me_ from Hell, and I wasn't exactly innocent either; why does-?"  
  
"Enough talk," Uriel said firmly. "Give us the girl."  
  
"Sorry," Dean said, after exchanging glances with the other three. "Get yourself another one. Try JDate."  
  
"Who's gonna stop us?" Uriel asked. "You four? Or this demon whore?"  
  
As Uriel threw Ruby against the wall, Dean charged Uriel as Sam stared pleadingly at Castiel, only for the angel in the trenchcoat to knock Sam out with a simple touch of his forehead. With Uriel easily keeping Dean out of action after catching Dean's attempt to punch him, Bela was left to face Castiel, forcing her to hurl him back with an ache-inducing burst of her power. With Sam unconscious and Bela clearly incapacitated by the pain, Deanna shifted to a combat stance as she prepared to charge Uriel, before both angels vanished in a burst of white light; Deanna actually saw Uriel fly towards the wall before he vanished.  
  
"What the…?" Dean and Bela said simultaneously, exchanging confused glances. As Ruby helped Sam to his feet, Deanna hurried into the back room to check on Anna, finding the girl with her hands and arms covered in blood, strange sigils drawn on a nearby mirror in what could only be her own blood.  
  
"Are they- are they gone?" the girl asked, looking anxiously up at the older woman.  
  
"They are," Deanna confirmed, quickly checking Anna's wounds before she relaxed; the cuts had clearly bled a lot, but nothing serious enough to be a long-term problem. "Did you… kill them?"  
  
"No," Anna said, as Deanna began to bandage the wounds with scraps of an old shirt. "I sent them away… far away."  
  
"How?" Deanna asked.  
  
"That just… popped into my head," Anna said, indicating the sigil on the mirror. "I don't know how I did it; I just did it."  
  
Deanna still had no idea what was going on here, but it was becoming clear that Anna was far more than a girl who had tapped into 'angel radio'; she highly doubted that an angel would just _happen_ to think of an anti-angel ward at a time like this when Anna could hear it…


	21. Epiphanies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As we move into 'Heaven and Hell', I'd like to just make it clear that some parts of the episode will be skipped over if they didn't really differ from what took place in canon, but I'll focus on what's important and clarify what happened in the 'missing' scenes; hope you like the result

As she sat on Bobby Singer's porch, contemplating what had just taken place as the Winchesters carried out research while Deanna sat with Anna in Bobby's panic room, Bela wondered how things had come to this.

She might not have been involved in many hunts prior to her brief period of time in Hell, but she had still been around the supernatural long enough to know what certain creatures our people should be capable of. She'd encountered a few psychics over the years, whether as potential sources of information or just 'marks' she'd had to get past for her current clients, and those encounters had been enough to give her a clear picture of what psychics were capable of.

Pulling angel-banishing sigils out of thin air when they were needed most wasn't something that a conventional psychic should be able to accomplish, even before you acknowledged Anna's ability to 'hack angel radio' as Dean put it; something about her clearly disturbed the angels.

Even if he'd stated that Anna 'had' to die, Bela couldn't believe that Castiel would just decide to kill someone like that; he'd said himself that he wasn't a 'hammer'…

Still, so far the best plan that they had for the current situation was keeping Anna on lockdown until they could work out what was happening to her and how best to stop it without killing her. The wards in the panic room and assorted hex bags should hopefully be enough protection to keep the angels and demons away until they were ready, but Sam's research into Anna's background hadn't turned up anything more distinctive than a previous breakdown when she was two where she claimed that her 'real' father- without ever identifying who he was meant to be- was angry with her for some reason. She had apparently gotten over the issue after some appointments with a child psychiatrist, but even Anna couldn't remember anything else from that time, which was why they had been forced to send Dean out to pick up Pamela, who was currently 'assessing' Anna in the panic room.

As if Bela didn't have enough issues with the angels right now, she had to be faced with the reminder that Castiel had actually _hurt_ someone; Pamela's new dark glasses didn't detract from the knowledge that blank white orbs lay behind those black lenses…

"Are you all right?" Deanna asked, as she walked out to sit beside Bela. Dean and Sam were staying in the panic room with Anna and Pamela as Pamela 'tested' Anna, but Bela had declined to participate and Deanna had decided to join her in waiting; the older woman had claimed that too many people in the panic room wouldn't help anything, but Bela was starting to wonder if the older woman had an ulterior motive.

"It's…" the former thief began, wondering how she'd reached this point- walls had been so easy for her before, and now she seemed to be letting more of them down every moment she spent with the Winchesters- before she just bit the metaphorical bullet. "I'm not ready to see Pamela."

"Why?" Deanna asked. "If this is about her injuries-"

"Not the way you think," Bela interjected. "I know that I couldn't have done anything to stop her getting injured in the first place- none of us knew what Castiel was or what seeing him would do to her, and Castiel explained why he couldn't appear earlier- but after… well, after seeing what Castiel was willing to do to Anna…"

"You don't like the reminder that he sometimes forgets that we're people?" Deanna asked, smiling slightly in understanding.

"I just… I know it's strange after the way I've acted in the past, but Castiel was the first person who actually acted like I might be _worth_ something," Bela said, looking almost pleadingly at Deanna. "Dean and Sam helped me once before… everything… but that seemed to be more based around the fact that they default to try and save lives, so I pretty much used up my good will with them after I stole the Colt, and then… well, when you're in Hell…"

"You're pretty much resigned to the fact that everyone worthwhile gave up on you?" Deanna said, still giving Bela a sympathetic smile. "For what it's worth, sometimes people aren't everything you hope they'll be; what you need to do is recognise their faults and accept them for everything that they are, rather than focus on their occasional issues."

"Speaking from experience?" Bela asked, grateful for anything that would take her mind off the issue of the angels.

"You met my husband; do you really think that he and I always agreed on everything?" Deanna pointed out, smiling wistfully at the memory. "I admired Samuel's dedication to his lifestyle, and I couldn't fault his skills as a hunter, but he could be a bit controlling when it came to protecting his family. I never doubted that he had good intentions, but he could overdo it at times…"

With that said, the two women sat in contemplative silence until the sound of footsteps was heard from behind them, prompting them to turn to watch as Sam Winchester came up the stairs, clearly shocked at whatever had happened down in the panic room, .

"What's wrong?" Bela asked, looking curiously at him.

"Pamela figured out why the angels want Anna," Sam said, as he looked between the two women. "She was one."

Bela blinked.

"She… Anna _was_ an angel?" she said, looking at Sam in shock. "How-?"

"She was about to fill us in on the rest; I thought you'd prefer to hear the specifics," Sam explained, indicating the door leading to the house's library. Her mind already made up, Bela stood up and walked through, Sam and Deanna close behind her, finding Dean and Pamela already sitting there while Ruby stood by the door to the kitchen, Anna pacing in the middle of the room.

"Don't be afraid," the red-haired girl said, looking up with a smile at the new arrivals. "I'm not like the others."

"I don't find that very reassuring," Ruby said, clearly sceptical of Anna's statement.

"Neither do I," Pamela added.

"So," Anna asked. "Castiel, Uriel… they're the ones that came for me?"

"You know them?" Sam asked.

"We were kind of in the same foxhole," Anna replied.

"So, what?" Dean asked. "Were they like your bosses or something?"

"Try the other way around," Anna said with a slightly embarrassed smile.

" _You_ were in charge of _Castiel_?" Bela said in surprise. "But… why would they want to kill you?"

"Orders are orders," Anna said. "I'm sure I have a death sentence on my head."

"Why?" Pamela asked, her tone a grim one that made it clear she had little interest in talking to even an ex-angel.

"I disobeyed," Anna replied, "which, for us, is about the worst thing you can do. I fell."

"Fell?" Deanna repeated, looking at Anna in surprise. "As in… you fell to Earth? You became human?"

"That's possible?" Sam asked.

"I did a bit of reading on angels while Bela was teaching me about this world; most of it was theoretical, but they did agree that angels could become human," Deanna explained, before turning her attention back to Anna. "What did that actually… involve?"

"I ripped out my grace," Anna explained.

"Your 'grace'?" Dean repeated.

"The source of my angelic power," Anna explained. "It kind of hurt… try cutting out your kidney with a butter knife."

"Ah," Dean said, wincing at the imagery. "So… you took out your angelic battery?"

"Exactly," Anna replied. "My mother, Amy, couldn't get pregnant; always called me her little miracle… She had no idea how right she was."

"And then you just forgot what you were?" Bela asked.

"The older I got, the longer I was human, yeah," Anna confirmed.

"I don't think you all appreciate how completely screwed we are," Ruby interjected, glaring at the assembled humans.

"Ruby's right," Anna said. "Heaven wants me dead."

"And Hell just wants her-" Ruby began.

"I can see that; what I don't understand is why you're in trouble with Heaven for _disobeying_ ," Bela interjected, looking firmly at the angel. "Castiel mentioned that he wasn't meant to rescue me from Hell, and nobody seems to have objected to what _he_ did…"

"The difference is that I went against everything we're meant to be as angels," Anna explained. "What Castiel did in saving you went beyond his remit, but he wasn't actually _disobeying_ anyone; I actually got the impression from what I overheard that some of the other angels actually… approved of what he did."

" _Some_ of the angels approved of it?" Bela repeated, looking at Anna in surprise. "Why-?"

"Can we worry about psychoanalysing Heaven's motives when we _don't_ have both sides on our backs?" Ruby interjected. "We have a flesh-and-blood angel here; what do you think Hell would give for an angel that they can actually torture? Call me a pessimist, but sooner or later, one of those two is going to get you."

"I know," Anna said, still pacing. "And that's why I'm going to get it back."

"It?" Bela asked. "You mean… your power source? Your grace?"

"You can get that back?" Dean asked.

"If I can find it," Anna said.

"And that's not going to be simple, I assume?" Deanna asked.

"Considering that I lost track of it while falling, yes," Anna confirmed. "I was moving at around ten thousand miles per hour at the time."

"Wait," Sam interjected. "You mean you were falling _literally_?"

"Yes," Anna replied.

"As in, falling the way a human eye can see?" Sam asked thoughtfully. "Like a comet, maybe, or a meteor?"

"Why do you ask?" Anna asked.

"Because," Deanna said, smiling as she followed her grandson's reasoning, "if we can find out when _you_ fell, we might be able to work out where your grace fell at the same time…"

* * *

The subsequent research session was nothing like what Bela had done in the past, but she actually appreciated the chance not to think too much about what Anna had told her (As well as Dean taking Pamela home; apparently she didn't want to spend any more time with an angel than she had to).  
  
While a part of her appreciated the fact that Castiel wasn't going to be hunted by his fellow angels just for saving her life, the rest of her had to wonder what made her so distinct. Castiel had made it clear that his decision to rescue her had been done on impulse when he had been sent down to Hell to resurrect Dean, but if the angels were so strict about rules, why would some of them _approve_ of his decision to rescue her…?  
  
Still, they had other issues to focus on right now, and worrying about the angelic reputation of one of the people who was currently trying to kill the person they wanted to protect wouldn't help them get that done. Sam had eventually managed to identify a pair of meteors that had fallen nine months before Anna's birth as the likely signs of Anna and her Grace falling to Earth, allowing them to at least guess that her Grace had landed in Kentucky, but the question was what they were going to do about that. Ruby had made various ominous comments about the danger they were facing with both Heaven and Hell looking for Anna, but the Winchesters and Deanna weren't about to abandon the former angel, and even Bela had to admit that the idea of leaving her didn't feel right even if she didn't know the angel that well (She must have been picking up more of a conscience than she thought; she wasn't even _faking_ being concerned right now).  
  
She agreed with Ruby's concern about the fact that they had Alastair on their back, but she had other things to be concerned about right now; she didn't _want_ to remember any more about her time in Hell than she absolutely had to…  
  
Glancing out of the window as she studied another book, Bela noticed Dean and Anna talking outside, sitting against one of the cars in the junkyard. Bela couldn't hear what they were saying at this distance, aside from a moment when Dean obviously laughed, but something about the way that Anna was looking at him just made her feel… feel…  
  
Bela pulled the curtains shut and turned back to the book; she was _not_ going to go there!  
  
All right, so she and Dean had been pulled out of Hell by the same angel and gone through the same time-travelling escapade; he was still the same frustrating idiot who'd let her get cursed by that rabbit's foot ( _He'd been saving his brother_ ), who couldn't let her just take the Hand of Glory and leave it at that ( _He'd saved her life when he didn't have to_ ), who'd continued to express resentment at the loss of the Colt after they'd literally been through Hell together ( _He might have been able to kill Lilith with that gun_ ), who'd tortured her in Hell ( _She had already forgiven him for that; anybody would have taken the chance to turn the tables down there_ )…  
  
No.  
  
She couldn't deny it.  
  
He might be a perpetually broke hunter who had a seriously unhealthy co-dependent relationship with his younger brother and little class beyond what he needed to get the job done, but Dean Winchester was also the bravest, noblest, most loyal man she'd ever met…  
  
"Oh, God…" Bela groaned, leaning her head against the table in frustration at herself.  
  
Like things weren't complicated enough, now she had _this_ to deal with?  
  
They were facing the end of the world, and she picked _now_ to start developing deeper emotions for other people? Dean could _never_ see her that way after everything she'd done- _and that didn't matter anyway_ -!  
  
"Bela?" Deanna asked, the older woman providing a welcome distraction from her thoughts as the former thief looked up. "Sam thinks he's found something."  
  
Right now, Bela didn't care _what_ Sam had found; she would be interested in anything that allowed her not to think about what she was starting to suspect about herself…


	22. Heaven from Hell

The subsequent drive to the tree in Kentucky that Sam had identified as the most likely location of Anna's Grace might have been long, but Bela had been grateful for the opportunity it offered. Not only had she been able to get a few hours' sleep when the journey started- she and Deanna had ended up car-sharing while the Winchesters took Anna and Ruby, but Deanna had insisted on driving as her greater experience at actively hunting had left her better prepared for long nights- but it also gave her a chance to get away from her uncomfortable thoughts about Dean.

Admittedly, she'd had a dream that seemed to alternate between being a good dream and a nightmare- sometimes she was recalling events in Hell, and on other occasions she was imagining the possibility that her offer of angry sex when they were stealing the hand of glory had been accepted- but she could handle dreams, and least she apparently hadn't said anything that was worth more than a stare from Deanna when she woke up.

She just wished that the final results had been more positive; they had managed to find the oak tree that had apparently sprouted from the location where Anna's Grace had landed, but apparently the Grace had already been taken before they got there, leaving them facing both sides in the war of Heaven and Hell with no additional assets. When Anna had reported that the angels were talking about sending Dean back to Hell if they didn't hand her back to the angels by midnight, all six of them had split up to try and brainstorm other possibilities, leaving Bela sitting in the back of Deanna's car flicking through one of the texts she'd brought along in case something useful came up. Deanna and Sam were attempting to come up with some anti-angel wards based on the banishing sigil that Anna had used on Castiel and Uriel earlier, and Bela assumed that Dean was keeping an eye on his car, which at least gave her some time on her own…

God, things had been _so_ much simpler when she didn't have to care about anyone else; maybe it was spending time with the Winchesters, but she _really_ cared about what would happen to Anna, despite having only met her a couple of days ago.

How was it that she'd spent years building up her image of a hardened thief, focused only on her next big score as she tried to find some way out of her deal, and it only took a few weeks with Deanna Campbell for her to turn into someone who was so willing to put her own life on the line for the sake of another person.

She didn't know if she should thank Deanna or hit her; after her initial reaction after seeing Sam ad Dean's reunion, it was… nice… to think that she now had people who would actually care if she died or not… but it also meant having people to worry about and miss herself…

* * *

Sitting on the Impala as he studied his latest allocated text, Dean wondered how long it was going to take for them to come up with some way out of this.  
  
He refused to accept that they'd been beaten already- even if it had taken Castiel to actually pull it off, he'd managed to get out of Hell, and before that he'd scored quite a few interesting victories in his time- but he was really starting to run out of ideas here. From what he'd read, that sigil Anna had used to banish the angels was a stopgap measure that just threw them away from the moment rather than banishing them outright, and anything he read theorising how to stop the angels was either speculative or required something he had no idea how to get his hands on in the time frame they had to work with. Bela was tackling some books in the car, Sam was brainstorming options with some of their other contacts, Deanna was checking in with Bobby to see what he'd dug up since they'd learned that angels were real… everyone was on the go and they had no way of knowing if any of the balls they'd tossed up would actually strike anything useful.  
  
"Hey," he said, looking up as Anna approached him, her arms folded protectively around herself; it was a weak distraction, but he'd take anything that saved him having to think about how screwed he was. "Holding up OK?"  
  
"Trying," Anna replied, an awkward edge to her manner as she stood beside him.  
  
"Yeah," Dean noted, acknowledging her point; with Heaven and Hell after you, it was probably coping if you weren't a screaming wreck.  
  
"A little scared, I guess," Anna admitted, Dean staying silent until she spoke again.  
  
"So, um, Dean… I just wanted to thank you."  
  
"For what?" Dean asked, looking up at her.  
  
"Everything," the ex-angel replied. "You guys- you don't have to help me-"  
  
"Hey, let's can the 'thanks for trying' speech, you know?" Dean said, trying to sound dismissive. "Participation trophies suck ass."  
  
"I don't know," Anna said, shaking her head uncertainly. "Maybe I don't deserve to be saved."  
  
"Don't talk like that," Dean said, looking firmly at her. "All you wanted was a chance to experience the good parts of life; it's not like you went out stabbing other angels or something douche like that."  
  
"I disobeyed, Lucifer disobeyed… it's our murder one, and I knew it," Anna said, looking back at him with a grim expression; she might as well not have heard his attempt to defend her. "Maybe I've got to pay."  
  
"We've all done things we've got to pay for," Dean said firmly; he might have been hesitant about this before, but being forgiven by one of the people he'd wronged down in Hell had helped him remember that people shouldn't be judged because of a few things they'd done, particularly if they wanted to make up for it. "Just because they feel they have the right to make that call doesn't mean they should."  
  
"Even for you and Bela?" Anna asked, looking at him in a pointed manner. "You accepted their judgement-"  
  
"Hey, I'd be an idiot to disagree with the people who decided that they _don't_ want me in Hell; I'm just not saying they have to be right all the time," Dean said, looking resolutely at Anna. "You just decided to do your own thing; you don't deserve to die for that."  
  
"I've got to tell you something," Anna said, sitting on the edge of the Impala as she looked at him. "You're not going to like it."  
  
"OK," Dean said, not thinking too much about the 'not going to like it' part; he'd rarely liked anything he'd heard from women in his life once they knew the truth about him. "What?"  
  
"About a week ago, I heard the angels talking… about you," Anna said. "What you did in Hell."  
  
"Oh," Dean said, realising where she was going with this; he'd brought it up with Bela during that whole thing with the ghost fever when he had to, but that didn't mean that he wanted to talk about this…  
  
"Dean, I know," Anna said, reaching up to place a hand against his cheek. "It wasn't your fault. You should forgive yourself."  
  
"Anna, I don't want…" Dean began, before he shook his head in frustration, trying to ward her off; her sympathy was appreciated, but she couldn't understand what it had been like down there. "I can't talk about that."  
  
"But you can talk to Bela about it?" Anna asked, smiling slightly at him. "You know, you aren't alone, Dean; you have people that want to help you."  
  
"And one of 'em killed her parents-" Dean began, hating himself for resorting to that kind of 'defence' even as he said it; Bela had already endured fifty years' worth of torture in Hell for that, and she was _trying_ to do better now…  
  
"It wasn't exactly unprovoked, Dean," Anna pointed out, looking critically at him. "Didn't you hear about the Seal they saved last month?"  
  
"What?" Dean said, looking at Anna in shock, deciding to ask the question that was likely to have an easier answer. "There was a Seal?"  
  
"Until Bela stopped it with Bobby and your grandmother," Anna explained, looking solemnly at Dean. "You should ask her about that; she needs to talk too."  
  
Dean didn't know what he could say to that, but it only took a few moments to decide what he should do next; he might not be particularly keen on angels as a whole right now, but if Anna was telling the truth about this, he had a few things he had to say to the woman who'd literally been through Hell with him…

* * *

"Why didn't you tell me?" he said, looking firmly at Bela as he got into his grandmother's car to sit beside the former thief.  
  
"Dean?" Bela said, looking at him in confusion as she put down the book she'd been studying, tossing it onto the front seat. "What-?"  
  
"Anna told me about the Seal you saved with Bobby and Gran," Dean said. "Why didn't you tell us?"  
  
"It was… personal," Bela said awkwardly.  
  
"A Seal is personal?" Dean repeated. "How the Hell is that-?"  
  
"It was being broken by my father," Bela said, resolving to rip off the metaphorical band-aid and cut right to the chase; as much as she was frustrated to learn that Anna had revealed their role in the protection of the Seal, she had to deal with the situation at hand, and it wasn't like she hadn't been thinking about telling Dean the truth anyway. "Well, it was being broken by the demon my father had become, but trust me, there wasn't much of a difference from when he was alive."  
  
"Hold- I- your _father_?" Dean repeated. "But… OK, Sam told me he was a bastard to you during that mess with the Witnesses, but what happened to them being good people?"  
  
"I lied," Bela said firmly. "Do you think I wanted to talk about what he did to me?"  
  
"What he did…?" Dean said, looking suddenly confused as he took in her grim expression; whatever Bela had done to her parents, it clearly hadn't been provoked by something like a childish fit at losing her pocket-money. "What did he do? Hit you?"  
  
"That was the start of it," Bela said grimly. "And then he… when I turned thirteen, he…"  
  
She paused for a moment, staring grimly at nothing in particular, before she sighed. "He was trying to break a Seal by possessing fathers and having them rape their daughters; what do you think he did to _me_?"  
  
"He _what_?" Dean said, confusion shifting to horror as he looked at her. "Oh my God…"  
  
"Can you blame me for not wanting to think about that any more than I had to?" Bela said firmly, not wanting Dean to say any more; the memory was painful enough without him actually saying what had been done to her all over again.  
  
"But… how the hell'd you end up making a deal?" Dean asked, voicing the question he'd never had the chance to ask when this topic was last being discussed. "I mean, you were fourteen years old and living in a fancy estate; where'd you even _learn_ enough about demons-?"  
  
"I didn't make the deal," Bela interjected. "A demon came to me."  
  
"Came to you?" Dean repeated, shock replaced by confusion. "You mean… something actually offered you a deal out of nothing?"  
  
"I was just sitting on the swings talking with another girl who knew a lot about me, she mentioned that she could take care of the problem and I wouldn't need to pay anything for ten years, and the next thing I know I'm coming home to be informed that my parents died in a car accident and I'm being sent off to a foster home," Bela replied, shaking her head at the memory. "It was easy to try and pretend that there was nothing more to it than that at first, but then I saw one of the other girls at the home talking with the ghost of her mother…"  
  
She shrugged slightly. "It's where I first began to really learn what was out there; I spoke with the hunter who came to put the ghost to rest and he offered to show me some of the ropes to protect myself, and then I took what he'd given me and used it to find out more…"  
  
"Makes sense," Dean said, nodding in understanding; he didn't approve of what she'd done with that knowledge, but he could easily follow how she'd come by it. Under other circumstances, he might have asked why a demon would just offer someone a deal without them going through the necessary preparations, but right now he had more immediate things to wonder about, and it was unlikely she could answer it anyway. "So, if you were the victim… why didn't you just tell me that?"  
  
"I never liked looking weak," Bela said grimly, looking awkwardly out of the window as she spoke, not wanting to see Dean's reaction to her confession. "I endured… _that_ … for years because I was afraid that nobody would believe me after what he did to my mother…"  
  
"Your mother?" Dean repeated, suddenly confused. "I thought she-"  
  
"That was my _step_ -mother," Bela clarified. "My biological mother was killed when she tried to get us both out of there before he'd start… _doing_ anything… he made it look like suicide… and my step-mother just… well, she liked to watch."  
  
"Damn…" Dean said, lost for anything else to say to such a disturbing revelation.  
  
He'd said it before, and he'd say it again; demons and monsters he understood, but people were just _sick_ sometimes.  
  
What kind of screwed-up bitch got off on watching a grown man molest a teenage girl?  
  
"Don't tell Sam," Bela asked suddenly. "I just… I don't…"  
  
"Sure," Dean said, nodding at her in understanding before his eyes widened. "Oh God, I'm sorry-"  
  
"We went through Hell together, Dean," Bela said, turning around to smile at him; the grin was somewhat weak, but the sentiment was understood. "I think there's no such thing as secrets between us after something like that."  
  
"Point," Dean said, smiling tentatively back at her. "Real pair, aren't we?"  
  
"The revenge-driven sociopath and the screwed-up thieving bitch?" Bela asked, returning his smile with one of her own. "To say the least."  
  
"I mighta been a bit out of line with that one…" Dean admitted, suddenly awkward about remembering how things had been between them last year.  
  
"No, you were right when you said it," Bela said, shaking her head reassuringly. " _I_ was out of line; whatever else you are, you aren't a sociopath."  
  
"That's…" Dean began, before he shook his head and gave her a grim smile. "That's probably the nicest thing a woman's said to me in a long time."  
  
"When she knows everything about you, mmm?" Bela asked.  
  
"Funny, isn't it?" Dean said, looking at her with a thoughtful smile. "I spent all that time hating you… and you didn't really think very highly of me… and now…"  
  
As though acting on some unspoken cue as he trailed off, Bela leaned over and kissed him, smiling slightly as she pulled back.  
  
"What…?" Dean began, looking curiously at her.  
  
"I'd say that it's the whole 'last night on Earth' thing, but…" Bela began, shrugging slightly as she looked at him with a small smile that made her seem all the more vulnerable. "Would you… accept that I've… been wanting to do that for a while?"  
  
As he looked at her, Dean found himself lost for what to do with a woman for the first time that he could remember.  
  
Bela Talbot had been willing to let Sam die to make some cash, had sold off a Hand of Glory that they'd needed to stop a ghost, told Gordon Walker where to find them, stolen the Colt, tried to kill Sam… helped them put the Witnesses to rest, stuck by him when he was trying to save his mother, helped his grandmother adjust to losing everything, helped his family save a Seal, helped his grandmother and uncle-figure save another Seal while facing her own personal demon…  
  
She wasn't perfect, but in this crazy messed-up world of theirs, would perfection ever be possible?  
  
Making up his mind, Dean leaned over just as Bela began to turn away and pressed his lips against hers. It was more hesitant than he might have done normally, but this wasn't a normal liaison, and he wasn't going to treat it as such.  
  
"Only if you accept that I've been thinkin' about doing _that_ for a while as well," he said, returning her slight smile with one of his own.  
  
It was only after he said those words that he realised how accurate they were; without even realising it, he _had_ been thinking about taking things between them to the next stage.  
  
"Just to be sure, this isn't-" Bela began.  
  
"No offence, but if I was looking for a last night on Earth screw, I'd be trying something with Anna," Dean said, guessing what she was about to ask and defaulting to a joke to try and lighten the mood (God, he _sucked_ at emotional crap). "I mean, how many guys can say they've done it with an ex-angel?"  
  
"And the reason you're _not_ doing that?" Bela asked, somehow managing to give off an air of disdain even as she looked at him in a manner that made it clear she was practically undressing him with her eyes.  
  
"Because…" Dean said, reaching over to place a hand on Bela's cheek, a tenderness about his manner that surprised even him, "as cliché as it sounds… you're special."  
  
"We went through Hell together, huh?" Bela said.  
  
"Among other things," Dean replied.  
  
With nothing else needing to be said, Dean and Bela leaned forwards as their lips met once again, Bela reaching out to lock the car against possible interruption before her attention was completely focused on Dean. As the former thief reached up to remove her shirt, for once Dean's gaze wasn't fixed on a woman's breasts- no matter how _wow_ that bra looked on her- as she took her top off, but on the burn that still stood out against her right shoulder, the same as the vivid mark that he still felt on his left shoulder.  
  
As he took off his own shirt, Bela's hand reached up to caress the brand that Castiel had left on him, even as Dean raised his hand to do the same to her mark, each of them touching the brand that had given them a connection nobody else on Earth could understand. As one kiss followed another, Dean was barely aware of when the rest of their clothes had been removed before his arms were wrapped around Bela as she moved on top of him, Dean surrendering his usual control to give Bela the sense of power she could never have felt for her first time, wanting this moment to be all about her rather than him, letting her escape the memories of her lack of power by revelling in the power she had over him…  
  
They'd work out where this would go tomorrow; right then, hunted by the forces of Heaven and Hell, each of them were focused only on enjoying their time together.


	23. Relationship Reflections

Neither Dean or Bela were certain when the scene shifted. After they were both too tired to carry on, drained by the emotional strain of their earlier conversation and their relief at coming together, they had simply laid together in the back of the car, Dean occasionally stroking Bela's back as they stared silently at each other, until they both suddenly found themselves walking into a barn with Uriel standing in front of them.

"Look at that," Uriel said, mockingly studying them with his hands in his pockets. "It's so cute when monkeys wear clothes."

"Are we… dreaming?" Bela asked, indicating herself and Dean uncertainly. "Together?"

"It's the only way we could chat, since you're hiding like cowards," Uriel said, a slight edge of contempt on the last word but his tone otherwise neutral.

"Don't normally see you off leash," Dean noted, regaining his usual composure. "Where's your boss?"

"Castiel?" Uriel said, looking thoughtfully upwards before he answered. "Oh, he's, uh… he's not here. See, he has this weakness; he likes you. Time's up, boy. We want the girl."

"Wouldn't try that if I were you," Dean said; when all else failed, bluffing was generally a good way out of any problem. "See, she got her grace back; full-blown angel now."

"That would be a neat trick," Uriel said, reaching under his shirt to pull out a necklace with a glowing glass jar on the end of it, the contents resembling glowing smoke, "considering I have her grace right here. We couldn't let Hell get its hooks on it."

"Then why not just give it back to her?" Bela asked.

"She committed a serious crime," Uriel said, as he tucked the necklace back under his shirt.

"Thinking for herself?" Dean said, staring scathingly at the angel.

"This is our business, not yours," Uriel said solemnly. "She's not even human... Not technically."

"Yeah, well, I guess I just like being a pain in the pooper," Dean said, looking pointedly at the angel.

"We don't define people based on whether or not they're human; we define them based on whether they want to _hurt_ humans," Bela added, joining Dean in glaring at the angel (Dean briefly reflected that she'd probably come to adopt that philosophy by making deals with some non-humans, but he decided not to voice that; apart from the fact that it wouldn't help, criticising Bela's past would be stupid after everything they'd been through).

"Anyway, this is your last chance," Uriel said, glaring back at the two humans. "Give us the girl, or-"

"Or what?" Dean asked, looking mockingly at the angel (Honestly, Bela was amazed some of the creatures Dean had faced hadn't killed him just to make him shut up). "You'll toss us back in the hole? You went to all that trouble to get us out-"

"We were ordered to get _you_ out," Uriel said, looking pointedly at Bela. "Miss Talbot is fair game… and in case you're forgetting, your dear grandmamma isn't meant to be here either."

"You wouldn't," Dean said, still glaring at the angel; Bela could only hope Uriel hadn't noticed the brief faltering in Dean's stance when Uriel made his threat (And she was _not_ going to consider that as solely a response to her being threatened; Deanna was more important to him). "You need me to play ball-"

"Don't overestimate your importance, Dean," Uriel said, returning the glare with one of his own. "This is a whole lot bigger than the plans we got for you, Dean. You can be replaced."

"What the hell?" Dean said, rolling his eyes. "You want to punish someone, go and drop me back in the hole if you want."

"You're just crazy enough to go that far, aren't you?" Uriel said, walking up to stand in front of Dean as Bela looked anxiously between the two of them.

"What can I say?" Dean said. "I don't break easily."

"Oh yes… you do," Uriel smirked, glancing over at Bela. "You've just got to know when to apply the right pressure."

As Dean exchanged an awkward glance with Bela- neither of them liked remembering the time when she'd been the 'right pressure' in question, even if it had been on top of various other factors- they both came to a decision.

With their current options limited, all they could do was go with something Sam had suggested earlier and hope for the best…

* * *

After Dean and Bela had woken up and gotten dressed, they were each relieved that nobody seemed to have noticed their mutual absence. Bela had noted Anna looking at Dean in a wistful manner, but when she'd moved over to talk to the ex-angel about it, Anna had simply smiled and said that Dean was with the person he was meant to be with, looking at Bela in a reassuring manner.  
  
Bela had no idea what she should feel regarding that particular news; the concept that an _angel_ thought that she and Dean were 'meant'…  
  
She was attracted to him, of course, but she wasn't quite ready to say that they were _meant_ ; they just… liked each other, that was all.  
  
"I don't know, man," Sam said, looking anxiously around the barn, playing up his anxieties for all they were worth. "Where's Ruby?"  
  
"Hey, she's your Hell buddy," Dean said, taking a sip from his flask as he sat on the stairs leading to the upper part of the barn.  
  
"Little early for that, isn't it?" Anna asked, as she walked down the stairs on the opposite side of the building.  
  
"It's 2am somewhere," Dean responded.  
  
"You really should watch your alcohol intake-" Deanna began, before the sound of a sudden wind outside preceded the barn doors practically flying open before Castiel and Uriel walked inside, the doors closing behind them in what the four humans could only think of as an overly dramatic gesture.  
  
"Hello, Anna," Castiel said, his tone as blank as ever. "It's good to see you."  
  
"How?" Sam said, playing his part. "How did you find us… Dean?"  
  
"I'm sorry," Dean said, the situation serious enough to give him that extra convincing edge to his tone; if this plan didn't pay off, Anna was going to be in _serious_ trouble…  
  
"Why?" Sam asked.  
  
"It was her or us," Bela said, managing to sound ashamed as she admitted it, indicating herself and Deanna before looking at Anna. "I'm sorry, Anna; I just… I _can't_ …"  
  
"It's OK," Anna said, smiling at Bela in understanding before looking back at Dean. "You did the best you could; I understand."  
  
The worst part was that Anna thought this was genuine- they couldn't take the risk that her access to angel radio would be two-way and allow the angels to read what she knew- which meant that she genuinely believed that…  
  
With her goodbyes said, Anna took a deep breath and walked up towards the other two angels, a solemn expression on her face despite the obvious tremor in her voice. "No more tricks. No more running. I'm ready."  
  
"I'm sorry," Castiel said.  
  
"No, you're not," Anna said, shaking her head slightly. "Not really. You don't know the feeling."  
  
"Still, we have a history," Castiel said. "It's just…"  
  
"Orders are orders… particularly these orders," Anna interjected firmly, obviously not wanting to hear it actually said. "Just make it quick."  
  
Just as the assembled hunters were starting to wonder if something had gone wrong with the plan, Alastair appeared in the barn, along with a bleeding and battered Ruby and two more figures who were almost certainly additional demons.  
  
"Don't you touch a hair on that poor girl's head," Alastair said, holding up a warning finger even as the mocking edge to his voice made it obvious that he wasn't acting out of any sense of concern.  
  
"How dare you come in this room... you pussing sore?" Uriel glared at the demon, walking forward as Ruby scrambled to the side of the barn after being dropped by her captors.  
  
"Name-calling," Alastair sneered. "That hurt my feelings… you sanctimonious, fanatical prick."  
  
"Turn around and walk away now," Castiel said firmly, walking forward to stand beside Uriel.  
  
"Sure," Alastair said, the demons and angels almost ignoring the humans as they subtly moved towards the edge of the barn. "Just give us the girl; we'll make sure she gets punished good and proper."  
  
"You know who we are and what we will do," Castiel said. "I won't say it again. Leave now... or we lay you to waste."  
  
"Think I'll take my chances," Alastair said.  
  
With that said, Uriel charged towards one of the demons, forcing him up against a nearby support beam with such force that he cracked the solid wood, holding the demon down and knocking the other away with a powerful punch. Castiel quickly began to fight with Alastair, delivering a series of quick punches before placing his hand against the demon's forehead, but whatever he was attempting apparently failed as Alastair delivered another punch that knocked Castiel to the ground. As Uriel pressed his hand against his opponent's forehead, causing its eyes and mouth to light up as the demon screamed, Alastair grabbed Castiel by the coat and hauled him upwards while standing menacingly over the fallen angel.  
  
Bela had initially been planning to stay out of the fight, but she changed her mind when Alastair began to chant something that sounded worryingly like an exorcism ritual; she didn't care one way or the other about Uriel, but even if she wasn't entirely happy with Castiel right now, he _had_ saved her and Dean from Hell. Before she could give herself the chance to talk herself out of it, she charged forward to stab Alastair in the side with the demon-killing knife, the knife digging into his side and forcing him to drop Castiel as the pain distracted him from his immediate task.  
  
"Well well well," Alastair said, wincing but evidently not dying as he turned to look mockingly at Bela, the knife almost crackling with energy from where it was sticking out of his chest. "So the Innocent starts to fight back…"  
  
"I'm not exactly helpless, you bastard," Bela spat, glaring at the demon in contempt; even if the knife wasn't the solution she'd been hoping it would be, whatever this demon had done to Dean and her in Hell, up here, he was just another sadistic black cloud riding in someone else's skin. "And unless you want a taste-"  
  
Her attempt at a speech was cut short when Alastair held out one hand and her throat suddenly felt like she was being strangled, Dean falling to the ground in a similar after Alastair had yanked the knife out of his side. With Deanna and Sam looking uncertainly between the two humans and the demon, clearly uncertain if they'd have time to attack before Alastair did something drastic, Bela tried and failed to tap whatever powers she had left from her time in Hell; it was so hard to focus, but if she could just-  
  
"NO!" Uriel suddenly yelled, prompting the assembled forces to look at the other angel in shock as Anna threw something to the ground that Bela only just had time to recognise as Anna's Grace before a brilliant white light seemed to flow from the ground into Anna's mouth; judging by the other demon lying on the ground beside Uriel, Anna must have grabbed the Grace while the angel was distracted. As Anna screamed at them to shut their eyes, Sam grabbed the knife from where it lay on the ground as Dean and Bela turned away as soon as Alastair released his 'hold' on them. The room was briefly filled with white light and a surge of 'wind' before the light faded and the sound vanished, revealing that Anna had vanished and a mark on the floor that was the only sign that Alastair had ever been in the room.  
  
"Well?" Dean said, looking over at Uriel and Castiel after taking a glance around the barn to confirm that the other hunters were unharmed. "What are you guys waiting for? Go get Anna. Unless, of course, you're scared."  
  
"This isn't over," Uriel said firmly, moving towards Dean before Castiel held him back with a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Oh, it looks over to me, junkless," Dean retorted, leaving Uriel with nothing to do but glare at him until he and Castiel vanished.  
  
"You OK?" Sam asked, looking anxiously at Bela and the battered Ruby.  
  
"Fine," Bela said, nodding briefly at him.  
  
"Not so much," Ruby said, wincing as she glanced at her bleeding chest.  
  
"What took you so long to get here?" Dean asked, looking at the demon in exasperation; he'd had a reasonable amount of faith that Alastair would screw over any attempt she made to make a deal with him even if she'd been tempted to make it serious, but she could have been quicker about it.  
  
"Sorry I'm late with the demon delivery," Ruby retorted with an edge of contempt in her voice. "I was only being tortured."  
  
"I have to give you this, Sam," Deanna said, smiling over at her grandson. "Pitting both sides against each other… _that_ was a plan."  
  
"Yeah, well," Sam said, his eyes flicking to Ruby as though seeking approval, "when you got Godzilla and Mothra on your ass, best to get out of their way and let them fight."  
  
"OK, now you're just bragging," Dean said.  
  
"The important thing is that Anna's an angel once again and she's safe from both sides," Deanna said, looking firmly at the group around her. "It may not be a perfect solution, but it works."  
  
"Yeah…" Dean said, nodding grimly at his grandmother as he looked at the area where Anna had been standing.  
  
She might be an angel again, but from everything she'd told him earlier, he doubted that Anna was exactly _happy_ to be back where she'd started…

* * *

"So," Dean said to Bela, the two looking awkwardly at each other as they stood outside the barn, Deanna and Sam finished making sure there was nothing lying around the interior that could be traced back to them, "with that sorted out… uh, y'know…"  
  
"Where do _we_ go now?" Bela finished for him, smiling teasingly at him before the smile faltered; evidently she'd only responded that way on automatic rather than actually thinking about it. "I… would you be annoyed if I said that I wasn't sure?"  
  
"Hey, you think I find this any easier?" Dean replied, smiling slightly uncertainly at her. "I spent years going around thinking that people'd consider me nuts if I told them what I did for a living- and the first time I tried to tell a girl the truth I just got booted out of the house as soon as she could get me to leave- and considering our history… well…"  
  
He trailed off, not wanting to bring up their past, but he knew he wouldn't have to; after everything they'd been through, maybe pursuing a deeper relationship wasn't entirely healthy, but Dean hadn't exactly been a poster-child for mental health even before all this stuff happened.  
  
"We're a complicated mess, aren't we?" Bela finished for him, smiling at the hunter in understanding.  
  
" _That_ is an understatement," Dean said, nodding in confirmation before he looked awkwardly at the former thief; emotions were not something he'd ever feel completely comfortable talking about, but it had to be done if they were going to take this any further. "Look, I think we can both agree that we have different… hell, _everything_ … right now, and I'm not expecting either of us to change too quickly- you don't have to come hunting with me, I'd appreciate it if you didn't drag me off on one of your… whatever- but if you're ever in… well, next time we're on the same case, once everything's sorted…"  
  
"Grab a bite to eat?" Bela finished for him, smiling in understanding. "Let me pick the restaurant, and you're on."  
  
"Restaurant?" Dean repeated.  
  
"I'm not going to some biker bar because you'd be more comfortable there, Dean," Bela pointed out, smiling at him in a manner that was only half-teasing. "We've always dealt with your world when we've had to work together; it's about time that you saw what it's like on my side of the tracks."  
  
"Fair enough," Dean acknowledged, smiling back at her before another thought came to him. "So… does this mean we're dating now? 'Cause I've got to make this clear; the apocalypse is pretty much the main priority right now…"  
  
"And I'm working on helping out when I can and established my own life at the same time," Bela said, nodding at him in acknowledgement. "Let's just say that we're two people who've been to Hell, came back, and… would like to spend some time enjoying the world together; no point labelling anything just yet."  
  
"I can work with that," Dean said, smiling back at her, some of his usual confidence restored. "See you around?"  
  
"See you around," Bela replied. Leaning over, the hunter and the ex-thief exchanged one last kiss before each headed back to their respective vehicles to prepare for their departure.

* * *

"I can't believe we made it out of there," Dean said, as he and Sam stood around the Impala the following morning, Dean having grabbed a couple of beers from the trunk after they had seen Deanna and Bela's car vanish over the horizon; the girls (Dean still felt weird thinking of his grandmother as one of the _girls_ , but she wasn't exactly a typical grandmother for so many reasons) had wanted to move on to another city so that Deanna could get a better taste of modern developments, but the Winchesters felt like taking some time together before they moved on to their next big hunt.  
  
"Again," Sam said, the two clinking their bottles against each other and taking a sip before the younger Winchester spoke again. "So… any idea why Alastair called Bella 'the Innocent' back there?"  
  
"Got me," Dean said, shaking his head contemplatively. "Doesn't exactly fit, does it?"  
  
"Particularly not with what you two were doing the night before," Sam said, smiling for the first time since they'd discussed his summer activities.  
  
"Ah," Dean said, considering and discarding the possibility of feigning ignorance; there was a reason his brother got that full ride to Stanford, after all. "You… know about that, huh?"  
  
"You were alone in a steamed-up car, Dean; you wouldn't exactly have been playing checkers," Sam noted, still smiling at Dean before his expression became more serious. "Seriously, though, how did _that_ happen? I mean, I know that Bela's changed, but…"  
  
"We… shared a few things," Dean said, shrugging awkwardly at Sam. "Stuff she's dealt with recently, this whole mess we're up against at the moment, things in Hell…"  
  
He trailed off, waiting for Sam to ask his usual question, looking inquiringly at his brother when the younger Winchester said nothing. "You're not curious about that?"  
  
"Dean, I'm damn curious," Sam said. "But you're not talking about Hell, and I'm not pushing."  
  
As Dean stood in silence for a moment, he took another sip of beer to give himself a chance to think about the decision he was about to make.  
  
It wasn't going to be an easy topic by any means- it was only 'easy' with Bela because she'd been there- but Sam had already shared his awkward summer activities with him…  
  
Besides, if Alastair was still out there- he could take being stabbed by the knife and had been apparently trying to exorcise Cas; Dean doubted a little thing like an angel regaining her grace would put him down- it was probably going to come up eventually; better Sam heard it from him now rather than heard the worst of it from Alastair later.  
  
"It wasn't four months, you know."  
  
"What?"  
  
"It was four months up here, but down there..." Dean continued; he'd never really thought about the exact timeframe, but he could make some kind of calculation based on the times he'd been tired (Assuming that he was even capable of getting tired in Hell as anything other than another means of torture). "I don't know; time's different. It was more like forty years."  
  
"My God…" Sam said, stuck for anything else to say to that news.  
  
If Dean had been in Hell for that long, he couldn't even imagine what Bela would have had to endure…  
  
"They, uh... They sliced and carved and tore at me in ways that you... Until there was nothing left," Dean said, staring out at nothing as he spoke, Sam remaining silent as he listened. "And then, suddenly... I would be whole again, like 'magic'... just so they could start in all over. And Alastair... at the end of every day... every one... he would come over… and he would make me an offer. To take me off the rack... if I put souls on... if I started the torture. And every day, I told him to stick it where the sun shines. For thirty years, I told him…"  
  
He wished that he could leave it at that, but he had to be honest with his brother; the odds they were facing were too great for them to start lying to each other.  
  
"But then I couldn't do it anymore, Sammy," he confessed. "I couldn't. And I got off that rack. God help me, I got right off it, and I started ripping them apart. I lost count of how many souls… The- the things that I did to them…"  
  
"Dean…" Sam said, lost for anything else to say as Dean actually started crying, the faint gleam of tears in his eyes as they started to trickle down his cheeks. "Dean, look, you held out for thirty years. That's longer than anyone would have-"  
  
"I tortured _her_ , Sammy," Dean said, needing to get this said; it was a minor breach of Bela's privacy, but Dean hoped that, in some way, it would help his brother understand what had happened between them. "She was the first one I tortured… the first person I hated enough to use everything on…"  
  
"Bela?" Sam said, looking at Dean in surprise, his plan to simply provide a sympathetic ear forgotten in the face of this shocking new information. "You tortured _Bela_?"  
  
"She remembers," Dean said, answering his brother's unasked question. "She remembers… and she forgave me… said anyone would have wanted to escape what I was going through…"  
  
Even after everything she'd done to help them since she'd been rescued from Hell, Sam still wasn't entirely sure how he felt about the former thief, but hearing a story like that really left him thinking more about what she was doing for them.  
  
Having the strength to not only forgive Dean for torturing her while they were in _Hell_ , but actually…  
  
Sam generally tried not to think too much about his brother's sex life, but right now, in a strange way, he was grateful to Bela for giving Dean something like that; Dean had a tendency to lash out when people had wronged him, so it might do him some good to be forgiven so emphatically by someone he'd 'wronged'.  
  
"How I feel..." Dean continued, his voice still trembling, ignorant of Sam's deeper thoughts as his face became damp from tears. "This... inside me... I almost wish I couldn't feel anything, Sammy. I wish I couldn't feel a damn thing."  
  
Sam said nothing as he looked at his brother, giving Dean the chance to grieve over his self-perceived sins as he contemplated how things would go from here on in.


	24. Plans for the Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another original chapter, as I felt that the next few hunts are ones that Sam and Dean should tackle alone; they'll reunite with the girls for the next Seal, but I felt that it was time to establish how Deanna and Bela differ from Dean and Sam

Looking thoughtfully at the newspaper in front of her as she sat in the New York apartment that was their current address, Bela wondered if she could really do this.

Dean's words in their last conversation had reinforced something that she'd been thinking about for a while; she wanted to help people for more reasons than just keeping herself out of Hell, but she didn't want to _just_ be a hunter either.

She was still slightly curious about why Alastair had referred to her as 'the Innocent' during their fight- she was fairly sure that she didn't quality as 'innocent' by any definition- but this wasn't the time to focus on how demons thought; she had to worry about her own life right now.

Maybe it was petty of her, but she'd spent too long living the good life to feel comfortable slumming it out of necessity. Deanna had managed to find them a few comfortable locations to stay in thanks to her various contacts in the Campbell family, and Bela had to admit that most of them were an improvement over the kind of places she'd met Sam and Dean during their encounters before she and Dean went to Hell, but they just weren't the same as what she was used to.

It wasn't like she was thinking about abandoning the quest to save the Seals, and she definitely wasn't going to go back to her old habits; she just didn't want to spend all her time looking for the next hunt and keeping track of what credit card company she hadn't applied to yet. With so many other things to worry about, she just wanted to feel as though she could find some line of work that would allow her to guarantee where she was going to sleep for more than the next couple of days…

"Are you all right?" Deanna asked, interrupting Bela's train of thought as she walked through the door, carrying bags from a nearby supermarket.

"Fine," Bela said, nodding at the older woman briefly before she shook her head in firm resolution; if she was planning on making changes, she was going to have to start trusting people with her plans, which meant sharing her thoughts with Deanna and see if she could find someone to agree with what she was thinking of doing (She'd start worrying about what Alastair meant by calling her 'the Innocent' when she had the time to spare). "Just… well, I've been… thinking about my old life."

"Your 'old life'?" Deanna repeated, looking curiously at Bela.

"Dean and Sam didn't tell you?" Bela inquired, surprised that she'd earned that much respect from them.

"About how you used to steal and sell supernatural artefacts?" Deanna asked. "It came up, but so what-?"

"They were being polite," Bela said, resolved to deal with this the same way she'd dealt with her recent discussions with Dean; Deanna had trusted her with so much so far that it would be pointless to continue lying, even if it was only lying by omission. "I didn't just steal and sell artefacts; I stole them even if they were needed to save people. I met Sam and Dean when I tried to steal and sell a cursed rabbit's foot that John had been keeping locked up, and I kept on trying to sell it even when I learned that Sam was going to die if he didn't destroy the foot, I sabotaged their attempt to stop a ghost by stealing the last remaining part of his body…"

She shook her head, suddenly overcome by a sense of self-loathing. "God, I stole the Colt and _gave it_ to Crowley; I didn't even have any guarantee that I'd get out of the deal-!"

"Bela," Deanna interjected, smiling reassuringly at the younger woman despite what she'd just heard. "Do you really think nobody's ever lost their way sometimes?"

"This isn't like your son-in-law going out and fixating on trying to hunt down a specific demon, Deanna; I was willing to let Dean and Sam _die_ to try and save myself by making _another_ deal with a demon-!" Bela began to protest, unable to believe that Deanna could be so calm about this.

"And here you are, just a few months later, risking your life to help Bobby and I confront the thing that used to be your father," Deanna said, looking at Bela in the same warm manner that she had before. "Whatever you did in the past, I don't need to know what you once were, Bela; I just need to know what you are now… and what you are is someone who's done nothing but help me adjust to everything that's happened and has risked her life more than once to protect other people."

Deanna smiled slightly as she looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling for a moment before turning back to look at the younger woman. "Besides, if you want to see people make mistakes, you should have seen my husband; I admired his dedication to his family, but I sometimes think the only reason he even trusted me enough to marry me was that we'd started dating before he learned about what was out there."

"That made a difference?" Bela asked in surprise.

"Once he found out what his family hunted, he committed himself to the life so completely that he couldn't bring himself to trust anyone outside of that group," Deanna explained. "That was why he objected to you and Dean hunting with us back in 1973; as far as he was concerned, any other hunter was automatically inferior just because they weren't Campbells, even if they had important insight to the current hunt."

"Oh," Bela said, surprised to hear Deanna discussing her own husband in this manner.

"I loved him, don't get me wrong- he was very committed to his job, and he genuinely cared about Mary- but he could be so… _stubborn_ at times…" Deanna said, smiling wistfully before she shook her head and sat down at the table opposite Bela. "Anyway, now that we've moved past sharing past secrets, what were you looking at anyway?"

In response, Bela turned the newspaper around and slid it across the table towards Deanna, who studied the relevant article.

"I take it there's some significance to this artefact?" she asked, indicating the accompanying photograph, which showed a man standing beside a statue of a two-headed figure with a very obvious gut.

"Agni, the Hindu god of fire and messages," Bela explained. "I've heard a few reports regarding the man in the picture once or twice; he has an interest in the supernatural, but tends to just hoard interesting artefacts simply so he can say he has them."

"I see," Deanna said, looking at the man in the picture in a more appraising manner. "I take it this… James Nepath… has used some unconventional means to gather his collection?"

"I never worked for him myself- he has a tendency to be unreliable regarding payment for his artefacts- but I know enough to be sure that he definitely didn't acquire that statue through legitimate channels," Bela explained, tapping the statue in the picture. "The point is, he has a reputation for being interested in some of the more potentially dangerous artefacts out there… and from what I can make out of that particular artefact, it meets those criteria."

"Ah," Deanna said, taking the newspaper from Bela and studying the photograph for a moment before she looked back at the younger woman. "It's hard to make out the finer details in this picture… but I take it you're concerned about its ability to be used as a summoning tool?"

"Precisely," Bela confirmed. "Nepath's never shown any sign of knowing how to use the artefacts he acquires, but even amateurs can get lucky, and he's never even been rumoured to have anything that powerful before now; a few rare hex-bags here, a blessed weapon there, things like that."

"I see," Deanna said, nodding in contemplative understanding before she looked at Bela directly. "And you think we should see about getting this particular artefact out of his collection?"

"It's the safest plan, certainly," Bela confirmed. "I can't predict the consequences if we just break it- considering what I can see of those carvings on it, it could easily summon Agni on its own if the balance is disrupted- but if we can get it out of his hands, we should be able to find somewhere safe to put it."

"Sounds like a plan," Deanna said, smiling in agreement at Bela. "When do we start?"


	25. Relocating Agni

Standing on the roof of the building opposite the penthouse where James Nepath kept his private collection, Deanna once again reminded herself not to look down; she'd done this kind of thing in the past when circumstances required her to use less-than-legal methods of resolving a hunt, but the distance to the ground was still somewhat unnerving.

Having determined that the artefact they were looking for was being kept in one of Nepath's penthouse suites- he apparently owned three suites in three major cities- Bela had quickly come up with a plan to get it away from its current owner. Although she wasn't entirely comfortable playing the 'helpless damsel' card most of the time, Bela had made an exception in this instance; according to the plan, she would break into the lower levels by pretending that she'd suffered a breakdown nearby, knock out the guard who came to help her, and then gain access to the building's security control room on the lower level to shut down the security throughout the building. She could only shut everything down for a couple of minutes without risking attracting attention or setting off other alarms, but if Deanna could get to the roof of the building, that should be enough time for her to get into the penthouse, grab the statue, and then get out before Bela had to turn everything back on.

In preparation for the break-in, Deanna had been provided with a grappling gun, a harness and a line-launcher that would allow the user to control the direction and speed at which they went up, down or along the grappling wire. The equipment had been a surprise for Deanna, but Bela had simply explained that she had gathered some interesting tools in her past profession; she might not be a conventional thief, but she was a professional with all the tools of her trade, even if she might only rarely need to call on everything in her arsenal.

It was a simple hunt on the face of it- and it technically wasn't even a real hunt; they were just removing a dangerous artefact from a careless owner- but it was a chance for Deanna to try something new and interesting in this strange and complicated future she'd found herself in; as much as she loved the chance to get to know her grandsons, she wanted to feel like this was a second chance at life, rather than just continuing what she'd been doing with Samuel.

Taking a last deep breath to prepare herself for what she was about to do, Deanna raised the grappling gun, aimed it at the wall of the small building on top of the lower building in front of her, and fired the wire. As she felt the weapon impact on its target, she quickly launched the other end to attach to the wall behind her before she snapped the line-launcher onto the harness. Walking up to the edge of the roof after attaching the launcher to the harness, Deanna took a deep breath before she pushed herself from the edge, trying to focus only on her destination and not just how _high_ she was right now…

As she hit the roof of the apartment complex, Deanna tried not to wince as she made contact; she might be in good shape, but she was still pushing forty, and this kind of physical activity wasn't exactly good for her age. Taking a moment to ensure that she was comfortable walking once again, she quickly headed for the door leading down from the roof before pulling out her phone.

"I'm on the roof," she said, after dialling the appropriate number.

" _Good_ ," Bela said, the younger woman sounding grimly amused at something. " _I was starting to get impatient; this guard was decent enough, but I've already had to knock him out twice_ …"

"Just get the power off and we'll be done soon," Deanna reassured her friend, as she placed her hand on the handle of the door before her, eyes fixed on the keypad beside the handle as she ended the call. As the light above the keypad went off, Deanna opened the door and hurried down the stairs to the next level, emerging into the penthouse and quickly heading for the larger door of the room where Nepath kept his collection, the whole suite illuminated by the city lights coming through the windows while Nepath was away.

As soon as she entered the room, it didn't take long for Deanna to identify her target, currently occupying pride of place in the middle of the room as the newest addition to Nepath's connection here. Taking in the two-headed statue, Deanna smiled in relief; as they'd confirmed while studying the original photograph, while the statue was fairly large, it wasn't so big or heavy that she wouldn't be able to carry it away as they'd planned. Putting it in the backpack, Deanna made sure that everything was secure before heading back for the door, locking it behind her before ascending the stairs to the roof once again.

"Got it," she said, her phone connecting to Bela's as she emerged back on to the roof.

" _Great_ ," Bela said, the sound of a faint beep at her end of the call suggesting that the security system was back up and running. " _Just get off the roof and I'll meet you back at the apartment_."

"No problem," Deanna said, smiling slightly as she attached the line launcher to the wire once again; this distance might still be unnerving, but at least she didn't have to worry about making her way from one end of the line to the other thanks to this device. Setting the device in motion, she glanced back at the door just in time to see the keypad light up before she was too far away to see the light, raising her legs in time to return to her original location without injuring anything. Detaching the line launcher from the wire, she set the cable to retract back into its source, packed away her equipment into her bag, and made her way down to the ground level to meet with her 'accomplice'.

"Got it?" Bela asked, the younger woman looking at her inquiringly as Deanna walked out of the building.

"All fine," Deanna confirmed, patting the bag holding the artefact as they walked back to the car a short distance away, the older hunter holding off on further questions until they were both inside. "So, what do you want to do with this now? Keep it locked up?"

"I thought about it, but there are still options for dealing with this and making a profit," Bela noted with a slight smile. "The main problem lies in the runes carved into the statue; if we can sand those down so that it's at least harder to see what the runes say, it could fetch a decent price from some more legitimate auction houses."

"That don't mind dealing in stolen goods?" Deanna said, looking pointedly at Bela.

"I knew a few places where the individuals don't mind bending the rules a little even if the hose itself has a good reputation," Bela clarified. "Trust me, I didn't steal this just to hand it over to someone else who'll use it for themselves; it's just… well, why shouldn't we make some money while protecting people from their own stupidity?"

Looking appraisingly at Bela for a moment, Deanna finally nodded in understanding.

"Well… I suppose if we're careful about it…" she said, sighing slightly as she studied the statue. "After all, I'm going to need _some_ money if I'm going to get my old degree back…"

"You had a degree?" Bela said, looking at Deanna in surprise.

"I was a substitute teacher, remember?" Deanna pointed out. "I couldn't exactly teach children without qualifications, could I?"

"Good point," Bela noted, looking apologetically at the other woman before she shrugged and indicated the road ahead of them. "Well, let's go."

The life of a hunter was never going to be comfortable, but if this set a precedent for her and Bela's future activities- recovering supernatural artefacts from people who couldn't be trusted with them- Deanna had a feeling that she was going to have a far more diverse lifestyle these days than she'd had back in her original time…

Still, there was something appealing in Bela's proposed strategy of 'supernatural Robin Hoods', when you got down to it; why should hunters always just react to the problems that arose rather than trying to avert them before they happened?


	26. The Town Without Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See if anyone can catch the reference to another favourite show of mine…

It had been a couple of months since Deanna and Bela had started their new approach to hunting, but they had been making good progress at establishing their new 'niche'. With Bobby and a few of his contacts helping them identify the location of some of the more challenging artefacts that met the requirements of their new role, along with the occasional salt-and-burn and monster hunt to keep themselves in the loop, the two were soon amazed that nobody had tried this kind of thing before.

They'd already recovered an old Chinese dragon statue that was said to have been used by an old Chinese god known as Weng-Chiang, as well as couple of necklaces that had been said to grant the wearer the power to command demons; even if the stories they'd heard in connection to those artefacts sounded somewhat questionable, with the Apocalypse potentially imminent, it had been decided that it would be best to gather up anything just to be sure (Even if they'd wasted some time following up a rumour that a collector had acquired a piece of the True Cross; all he'd had in the end was a very old piece of wood that may have come from a crucifix).

The two women still kept in touch with Sam and Dean, but without any new reports of any Seals that had be to kept contained, they had each reached an unspoken decision that remaining separate allowed them to cover more ground until something big came up. Bobby took care to let Deanna in particular know what her grandsons were up to, but so far it just seemed to have been the standard kind of difficult for hunters; the most difficult thing they'd had to face so far had been a close call with an incubus that Bobby had to save them from before it provoked them into killing each other.

Bela had teased Dean slightly about the idea that even a supernatural creature that normally targeted women had made an exception to taunt Dean and Sam's bond, but she'd known before she started that it was all just a joke. Sam and Dean might be closer than regular brothers, but that was just what happened when you grew up with only each other to completely depend on; Bela had faith that Sam and Dean had no interest in taking anything further, even if it was amusing to joke about it.

The two had told the other that Deanna and Sam each clearly suspected that they were more than fellow hunters at the very least, but nobody else was aware of their developing relationship outside of those four; even Bobby had no reason to suspect anything had changed in their dynamic. Dean had confessed to telling Sam about what had happened between them while they were in Hell, and Bela had decided to share that information with Deanna to balance it out, but otherwise they'd done what they could avoid any questions about their relationship.

With their latest theft a success, the two were currently resting in the old Campbell compound that had been delegated as their 'depository' for any artefacts that were unquestionably too dangerous to sell on no matter what they did. The latest acquisition was a series of wood carvings that supposedly contained an inscription that could summon the Devil- part of a collection of mystical artefacts, including a distinctive spellbook that Bela had decided to take along as well to be on the safe side- and even if the Seals were genuinely the only thing that could release Lucifer from the Cage he was currently trapped in, neither of them wanted to take the chance. Bela had just finished off her breakfast for the morning when Deanna came into the room

"I just got a call from Bobby Singer," Deanna said, looking anxiously at the younger woman. "Dean and Sam are investigating a crisis in Wyoming, and they need some help."

"What's the problem?" Bela asked, already expecting the worst; as much as she… enjoyed spending time with Dean… he and Sam did tend to attract the worst hunts…

"People aren't dying."

"People aren't dying?" Bela repeated. "And… that's a _bad_ thing?"

"When the people who aren't dying include a man who was shot at point-blank range and a man automatically recovering from a supposedly terminal illness, yes," Deanna clarified.

"Ah," Bela said, now understanding Dean's concern. "Do they have any ideas?"

"Sam suspected that someone was making deals, but he's just not sure about anything yet; Bobby called us in because he thinks it might be something bigger."

"Bigger?" Bela repeated, looking at Deanna with new anxiety. "As in… something seal-related?"

"He thinks it might be, but he hasn't had time to do enough research to confirm it one way or the other; he suggested a few titles that we could check over on the way," Deanna explained, already gathering some books from the nearby shelves. "Let me get breakfast, and then we should get packed; I'll drive, you research."

* * *

The following day's driving was difficult, but they were able to make fairly good time to the town where Sam and Dean were apparently dealing with their latest hunt. Going over the books, Bela had managed to find some obscure versions of the Book of Revelations that suggested that killing a pair of Reapers at this time of year would break another Seal, but she would have preferred to check her sources with Bobby before committing herself to anything; every time she tried to reach his number, he seemed to be absent.  
  
After arriving in the city, it hadn't taken long to find Dean and Sam's motel room- considering some of the places she'd found Sam and Dean staying in the past, this one was actually rather clean- the two women walking up to the room that Bobby had told them was the Winchesters' current place of residence.  
  
"…gonna have to take care of this one ourselves," Dean's voice said on the other side, prompting a smile from Bela as she checked and opened the door (She presumed the Winchesters relied more on supernatural protection than standard locks).  
  
"Well, not _entirely_ by yourselves," she said, smiling as she and Deanna walked into the room.  
  
"Bela?"  
  
"Gran?" Sam said, looking at Deanna in surprise. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Bobby called and told us about the situation," Deanna explained, giving her youngest grandson a brief hug before she looked between them. "What have you got so far?"  
  
"Uh… not as much as we'd like," Dean said, shrugging awkwardly at his grandmother. "We identified the last local death as this kid, Cole Griffith who bought it in a car accident over a week ago, but when we tried to summon him to ask what was going down, Alastair showed up again."  
  
"Alastair?" Bela said, looking at Dean in shock. "I thought Anna killed him?"  
  
"Apparently, she just vaped his body; asshole managed to bail out before she got him. We managed to get away, and Sam's got this whole theory about the local Reapers being hunted-"  
  
"Which fits what we found," Bela interjected.  
  
"You found something?" Sam said, looking hopefully at the hunter.  
  
"Just some complicated passage in an old version of Revelations that suggests that killing two Reapers would break a Seal," Bela clarified. "I was trying to call Bobby about it, but he must have been away; I could never get through."  
  
"Huh," Sam said, looking at her in surprise. "I just got off the phone with him earlier; he pretty much told me what you just did."  
  
"Oh," Bela said, briefly wondering why she'd failed to get through to the older hunter before deciding not to worry about it. "Well, in any case, now that we know what's at stake, what do we do?"  
  
"Got me," Sam said, shaking his head. "I mean, even if Reapers are in danger, we can't exactly swing to the rescue; they're invisible to everyone but the dead and the dying."  
  
"Unless…" Dean said, smiling over at the other hunters, " _we_ become ghosts."  
  
"You've got a concussion," Sam said, after a moment's silence confirmed that Deanna and Bela weren't going to respond to that statement either.  
  
"Sounds crazy, I know," Dean acknowledged. "Still, there's enough talk of astral projection that there's got to be something to it, right? If we can project ourselves out of our bodies, then…?"  
  
He shrugged. "Long shot, I know, but it's got to be worth a _shot_ , right?"  
  
"Quite," Deanna said, nodding in approval at her grandson before she smiled over at Bela. "And, as good luck would have it, we picked up some rather interesting spells on our last case…"

* * *

"Are you sure these will work?" Sam asked, looking uncertainly at the books that his grandmother and her current hunting partner had laid out on the room's desk, he and Dean sitting on the beds as the women prepared the spell. "I mean, you said that you haven't done this kind of thing before…"  
  
"No, but the witches who wrote this spell were notoriously skilled at performing the most unconventional forms of magic; it's why we felt it best to get it away from the collector," Bela explained. "It's extreme, but when you've been to Hell, the definition of 'extreme' isn't the same as everyone else's."  
  
"Theoretically, it should be simple enough," Deanna confirmed, as she laid out the relevant parts for the spell. "We've got everything we need for the spell, the instructions are clear enough, and you two are… well, fairly stubborn; you've got all you need to be decent ghosts anyway if you concentrate enough."  
  
"You boys do realise that this is one of the craziest things any hunter has ever attempted, right?" Deanna put in.  
  
"Says the woman who was taken over forty years into the future by an angel by accident," Dean pointed out.  
  
"Point," Deanna said, smiling back at her eldest grandchild before she sighed. "Well, in any case, we need to find that Reaper; let's just hope this works…"  
  
As Sam and Dean lay down on the beds, Deanna and Bela lit various candles around the room before sitting down on chairs arranged between the two beds, the book between them facing Bela.  
  
"Remember, you'll basically be vapour unless you can get in some practise," Bela put in, looking anxiously over at Dean. "When you find Cole, it might be advisable to ask him for some insight; if he's been gone for a week, he may have picked up _something_ by now."  
  
"OK," Dean said, giving her a brief smile before he closed his eyes and clasped his hands over his chest. "Let's go."  
  
As his grandmother and Bela began to chant, Dean allowed his mind to drift for a moment as he listened to the rhythm of the spell- he found magic disturbing most of the time, but at least here he knew what it was all about and could focus on the pattern of the words- letting the Latin wash over him until it came to a halt.  
  
"Huh," he said, sitting up and feeling no different. "Well, guess that was a… bust…"  
  
His voice trailed off as he turned around and found himself looking at his own body still lying on the bed, the room having shifted from its original colour scheme to varying shades of a strange dark blue that tinted everything around him. Sam was in a similar position to his left as his younger brother's upper body seemed to have been copied, one lying down with eyes closed and arms folded while the other one sat up.  
  
"Oh, I'm feeling _so_ Demi Moore…" Dean said, as he and Sam got up from the beds, leaving their bodies lying on the ground.  
  
"OK," Deanna said, looking around the room, "assuming that worked, just remember that we have to bring you back ourselves; until you return to your bodies, you have all the restrictions of ghosts, so be careful. In the meantime, try and get to Cole Griffith's house to see if he's there; considering that he's just a child, he probably wanted to stay close to his mother."  
  
Glancing over at Sam, Dean was slightly relieved to see that his brother hadn't thought of that either; he was going to blame it on the panic that they were dealing with another seal and stick to that story if anyone asked.  
  
"Right," he said, indicating the door behind them. "Let's see what Caspar has to say about all this."  
  
"Caspar?" Sam repeated, smiling slightly as he followed Dean through the wall.  
  
"Only kid-ghost I could think of," Dean said defensively.  
  
"Talking of which, you do know that it was Swayze rather than Moore who was the ghost in _Ghost_ , right?" Sam pointed out.  
  
"And what does that say about you when you actually _know_ that?" Dean countered.  
  
It was a pointless talk even by their standards, but in this kind of situation, anything was better than thinking too much about just how insane this whole situation was…


	27. Hunting for Death

After an hour's worth of walking, Dean was just grateful that they had started this search with a specific destination in mind; who knew how long it would have taken them to find something useful without that? He'd enjoyed the opportunity to get in a little practise with his new ghostly state as he and Sam walked by moving through solid objects or letting people run through him, but he was privately wondering how long it would take them to master the art of manipulating objects themselves; it was slightly weird that he couldn't even touch Sam right now, even if it was kind of funny to see his arm go through Sam's chest…

"There," Sam said, nodding up at the house that they'd identified as the Griffith residence. "Three o'clock; kid in the window."

Glancing up in the indicated direction, Dean smiled as he saw Cole Griffith looking out at them; it might be a small victory, but they'd work with what they had.

"Cole?" Sam asked.

"Bingo," Dean confirmed, just before Cole's image flickered and vanished from the window.

Exchanging glances, the Winchesters headed towards the house, walking through the walls and heading up the stairs- fortunately they could still do that; Dean guessed that walking was so natural it required less conscious effort than actually trying to move things- to enter the room they'd seen Cole in.

The two just had time to register the presence of an older woman who had to be Cole's mother, walking out of the room with messy brown hair and a long grey cardigan as grief practically radiated from her, before a soccer ball suddenly started spinning from its position on a nearby dresser, flew through the air to fly through Dean and strike the door behind him. As the woman left the room, the young boy who had to be a ghost picked up another ball and threw them at the Winchesters, glaring at them all the while.

"Stop!" Dean yelled, surprised when it worked but willing to work with the situation. "How are you doing that?"

"Who are you?" Cole asked firmly.

"Relax, Cole," Sam said. "It's OK."

"How do you know my name?" the boy asked, stepping back slightly even as he still glared at the Winchesters.

"Look," Sam said, "this isn't gonna be easy to hear, but… you're dead. You're a spirit. Us too."

"Yeah, thanks, Haley Joel," Cole said sarcastically. "I know I'm dead; what do you want?"

"We just want to talk," Sam explained.

"About what?"

"About your death, basically," Dean said, deciding to cut to the chase; if the kid was that willing to state that he was dead, rather than doing the _Sixth Sense_ bit and denying that he'd snuffed it like Molly McNamara, they might as well use it.

For a moment, Cole didn't respond, but then he walked through the door, Sam and Dean hurrying after him in time to see him take up a position leaning against a wall downstairs, watching as his mother drank a glass of vodka in the kitchen.

"I was outside all morning," Cole said at last, staring at his mother as the brothers sat down at the table behind him, before he turned to look at them directly. "They tell you to be careful when it's cold."

"Cold air can cause an asthma attack?" Dean asked, prompting a shrug from Cole.

"Then I was in my room," the boy continued. "It happened so fast. I called out for my mom, but nothing came out. Everything started spinning, and then I was just standing there, looking down at my body."

"And that's when you saw the man?" Sam asked, as Cole leaned on the table.

"Creepy old guy in a black suit," Cole confirmed. "He wanted me to go with him, but …"

He looked back at his mother. "I didn't want to go."

"Reaper?" Sam said, glancing over at his brother before he looked back at Cole. "How'd you get rid of him?"

"I didn't" Cole said. "The black smoke did."

"Black smoke?" Dean repeated, interest renewed at this new evidence of demon interest.

"It was everywhere," Cole said. "I hid in the closet, and when I came out, it was gone, and so was he."

"Do you know where the smoke went?" Dean asked, leaning forward eagerly.

"No," Cole said. "But I know where it is."

Dean was about to ask for more information when the lights started flickering around them, Cole jumping up as his mother looked around.

"They're back," the boy said.

"Who?" Dean asked, only for Cole to vanish before Dean could press him for answers. With their best potential lead now absent, Dean and Sam stood up to look around anxiously before a blast of wind hit them in the face, something white and human-shaped passing through the room and up the stairs.

"Another reaper?" Sam said, answering his own question as he and Dean got up and ran for the stairs.

"Hey!" Dean yelled up the stairs. "Hey! Wait! We need to talk to you!"

As though in response to Dean's call, a dark-haired woman walked down the stairs, dressed in a dark brown leather jacket and casual jeans, looking almost too normal compared to the spirit they'd seen earlier.

"Dean," she said.

"Do I know you?" Dean asked, noting that at least Sam was just as confused as he was.

"We go way back," the woman said, walking down the last of the stairs and back into the dining area before turning around to look at him. "You don't remember me?"

"Honestly, if I had a nickel for every time I heard a girl say that..." Dean began awkwardly. "You're gonna have to freshen my memory."

In response, the woman stepped forward, reached up, pulled Dean into a kiss-

_He was looking down on his own body-_

_He was talking to a woman that only he could see-_

_He had determined that she was a Reaper here for his soul-_

_He was preparing to accept his death and move on-_

_The woman turned to him with yellow eyes-_

The moment passed as the woman stepped away, Dean only able to stare at her in confusion for a moment before his new memories asserted themselves.

"Tessa?" he said

"That's one of my names, yeah," the woman confirmed,

"So, you do know her?" Sam asked.

"From the hospital after the accident," Dean clarified.

"The accident with Dad?" Sam asked, Dean only allowing himself to nod in response. "So, this is the Reaper that came after you?"

"Yeah," Dean said.

"Well, this was fun," Tessa said, looking briefly at Sam before turning back to Dean. "Now, if you'll excuse me-"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Dean protested; meeting a reaper might be a confusing turn of events, but he had to focus on what mattered most right now. "You can't- you can't take the kid."

"Why?" Tessa asked.

"Demons are in town, that's why," Dean said firmly. "They've already snatched your reaper pal. The kid knows where."

"So?" Tessa asked.

"So, you should shag ass," Sam said. "For all we know, they could try and snatch you, too."

"Except that this town is off the rails," Tessa said firmly but coolly. "And someone has to set it straight."

"Yeah, we understand that, but these are special circumstances," Dean protested.

"What?" Tessa countered. "Your whole angel-demon dance-off? I could care less. I just want to do my job."

"Right, yeah, and, look, we want to help you do your job, so if you would just bail town-" Sam said.

"No," Tessa said.

"Well, then, could you hold off until we fix this?" Dean asked, settling for the best compromise he could think of. "Please?"

"All right," Tessa said, sighing in resignation before she re-focused her glare on Dean. "But just so we're clear, when I start reaping again, I'm starting with the kid."

"Understood," Sam said. "I'll find him."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Dean protested, as Sam turned to go up the stairs. "What… what are you gonna say to him?"

"Whatever I have to," Sam said, before he turned back up the stairs, Dean only able to watch as his brother walked up to the kid's room, leaving the elder Winchester looking awkwardly at Tessa as they stood alone and invisible in the kitchen.

"I'll tell you," Tessa said, after a moment's awkward silence had passed, "life is funny."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"You and me, together again."

"Are you- are you making a move on me?" Dean asked, uncertain how he should feel about a Reaper making a move on him; should it be a compliment or just weird that he was so hot even the never-living were interested in him?

"You're just the one that got away, Dean," Tessa said, shaking her head even as she smiled at him, her manner unusually warm without Sam present. "You'd be surprised how little that happens to me."

"Can I tell you something between you and me?" Dean asked; this situation might be uncomfortable, but he was hardly likely to have a chance to get this off his chest at any other point.

"Who am I gonna tell?" Tessa pointed out.

"After our little, uh, experience…" Dean began, suddenly stuck for the best way to express what had been bothering him for so long, "for that whole year, I felt like I had this… hole in my gut… like I was missing something. I didn't know what. Do you know what it was?"

Tessa simply stood and looked at him in silence, her expression becoming somewhat sympathetic as she listened.

"It was you," Dean continued, recalling the dark feelings that had led to him making that fateful deal. "The pain of losing my father and Sammy. I just...I wish I had gone with you for good. But I guess things are different now."

"What?" Tessa asked, smiling teasingly at him. "The angels on your shoulder, or the woman waiting in your room?"

"You know about those, huh?" Dean said, shrugging out of embarrassment at his inability to express himself better. "Well, Bela's… she's…"

He shrugged, lost for words on how to describe the ex-thief who was now working with his grandmother, before he decided to focus on the other issues. "As for the angels… well, I'll admit, most of the ones I've met are dicks with wings. But still... You know, I've done things. Horrible things. And someone upstairs still decided to give me a second chance. It just makes me feel… I don't know."

Tessa simply hummed thoughtfully at that statement, but Dean was saved from having to say anything more when Sam reappeared, Cole standing anxiously behind him.

"Hey, Cole," Tessa said, looking sympathetically at him. "I'm Tessa. I'm not going to hurt you."

"It's OK, Cole," Sam said, as Cole moved back anxiously. "Just tell them what you told me."

"I saw the black smoke at my funeral," Cole said, his manner hesitant despite the importance of his words.

"At the cemetery?" Dean asked.

"At the funeral home," Cole corrected. "It was everywhere."

Dean was about to ask for more information when the lights flickered around them once again, a glance at Tessa confirming that even the formerly in-control Reaper was as uncertain about this turn of events as the rest of them. Before Dean could work out a suitable plan, the front door opened and black smoke poured into the house, the Winchesters and Cole only able to duck as it approached them. The smoke vanished back out through the door as suddenly as it had crashed through the house, but a quick glance was all that was needed to confirm that Tessa had vanished with it.

"Great!" Dean groaned, looking over at Sam as his brother checked on Cole; the kid was all right- aside from still being dead- but that didn't help them deal with the main problem right now. "How the hell are we supposed to fight _this_?"

"I don't know," Sam said. "Learn some ghost moves?"

Dean was about to retort with a sarcastic remark, but then his eyes fell on Cole and a thought occurred to him.

Cole might be a kid, but he _had_ been throwing balls around earlier; he must have picked up _some_ tricks since his death…


	28. Saving Death

The subsequent crash course in Being a Ghost 101 had been a strange lesson, but with unknown time constraints and odds, it was the best that Dean and Sam could manage under the circumstances. Despite being a kid, Cole had proven Bela's guess right and managed to be a fairly effective instructor, quickly giving the brothers pointers in how to concentrate and actually do something to affect their environment, ranging from simply moving things to actually mounting attacks.

Dean wasn't ready to make the jump and operate without his body completely yet, but he _could_ see how some ghosts could be tempted to stick around; who wouldn't want powers?

Right now, however, his priority was whatever was going on at the funeral home that Cole had just directed them to. Standing in front of it, Dean was bemused at the various sigils and figures carved all over it, some circular and some square but all filled with some kind of strange runes, glowing a pale blue.

"This looks like _New Jack City_ ," he said, as various pedestrians wandered by the house as though glow-in-the-dark graffiti was normal. "Can nobody see this?"

"Maybe it's demon invisible ink," Sam suggested. "Only see it in the veil."

"Any idea what it's for?"

"We'll find out," Sam said, indicating the open door at the front of the funeral home. With nothing else to do, Dean followed his brother into the building, quickly checking around the stairs and entrance hall before they found a large room with an eight-pointed star in the centre of the floor, strange squiggles at each point. Tessa was lying in the middle of the square along with an old man in a suit who was presumably the first Reaper that had been captured, and a man was standing guard a short distance away.

Making up his mind, Dean made sure that he had Sam's attention, focused on the area just behind the other man, and instantaneously found himself in position. Tapping the man on the shoulder just for the sake of it, Dean waited until the other guy had turned around before he punched the man in the face, stepping aside before the other guy could retaliate to let Sam get in a shot. They each managed to launch a couple of punches at the man before he fell to the ground, scrambling behind a coffin on the central dais for some kind of perceived security.

"You know," Dean noted, as he and Sam walked up to the dais to stare at their opponent as he cowered behind the coffin, "this ghost thing, it's… it's kind of rad."

Sam was prevented from responding when another figure suddenly emerged from behind a curtain, carrying a chain and making strange chants as he pulled it into position around them, their former foe leaping over the coffin and the chain forming an enclosed circle around them before Sam and Dean could get out of the way.

"It's iron," Sam said, looking apprehensively at the chain as the man dropped it, his hands smoking but the chain secured around them.

"Boys," a third man said as he walked into the room, his eyes turning white to confirm his identity as Alastair. "Find the place OK?"

Before Dean could reply, Alastair took a shotgun from one of the other demons and fired it at Dean, leaving Dean reeling in shock as everything around him suddenly vanished, leaving him somewhere that felt dark and cold, as though everything was just visible around the corner of his eye, only just hearing something about rock salt before his regular vision returned and he was back in the funeral home.

"Alastair," he said, looking grimly at the demon. "You bastard."

"Well, go on," Alastair said mockingly. "Why don't you try some of your mojo on me now, hotshot? Hard to get it up when you're not wearing your meat, huh?"

"Go to Hell," Sam said coldly.

"Ah, if only I could," Alastair said, crossing the room with a smile. "But they just keep sending me back up to this arctic craphole."

"To kill death?" Dean asked.

"No, to kill death twice," Alastair clarified. "It takes two to break a seal. I figured another one would show up, though. They're like lemmings."

He paused for a moment to fire the shotgun at Sam, the younger Winchester vanishing as Alastair walked up to the chain. "By the way, it's, uh, good to see you again, Dean."

"You can shoot us all you want, but you can't kill us," Dean said as Sam reappeared, arms wrapped around his torso but otherwise unharmed.

"Ah, that so?" Alastair asked, smirking at him before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a short-handled, long-bladed scythe with a satisfied smirk. "Anyhoo… moon's in the right spot, the board is set; let's get started, shall we?"

"You're gonna kill a reaper with that?" Dean asked. "It's little on the nose, don't you think?"

"Is it?" Alastair said, smiling as he studied the blade before walking over to the two trapped Reapers. "An old friend lent it to me. You know, he doesn't really ride a pale horse? But he does have three amigos, and they're just jonesing for the apocalypse."

Trapped behind the chain, Dean could only glare as Alastair crouched down beside the old man Reaper, grabbing him by the collar and hauling him up.

"It pays to have friends in low places, don't you think?" the demon noted, before he placed the scythe behind the Reaper's neck and began to chant, the elderly Reaper looking around in confusion. "Hic cruor messorius, illud sigillum, quod luciferem reverendum obstringit, aperiat ut resurgat!"

With those ominous words, Alastair pulled the scythe over the Reaper's neck, generating white-blue light as the Reaper slumped to the ground and the demon smiled in satisfaction.

 _Damnit_! Dean thought to himself.

He was standing right in front of a demon that was preparing to break a seal, and he couldn't do a _thing_ …

Feeling Sam's eyes on him, Dean glanced over at his brother, following Sam's gaze to the chandelier hanging above the Reaper trap; it was a stretch, but they _might_ be able to generate enough energy to pull this off…

As Alastair grabbed Tessa by the shoulder, Dean focused every ounce of spectral concentration he could generate onto the chandelier, feeling Sam doing the same thing beside him. Ignoring the demon as he started to chant, Dean kept his focus on the chandelier, the lighting fixture beginning to shake as the Winchesters maintained their concentration until it finally fell down. The chandelier was too far away to hurt Alastair, but the impact cracked a floorboard in just the right place to break the Reaper trap, allowing Tessa to vanish before Alastair could deliver the final blow.

"Bye-bye," Dean said, grinning at the demon torturer as Tessa reappeared beside them, unhooking the chain that had been keeping him and Sam trapped before she teleported them away again, the three of them reappearing outside the funeral home.

"That's it?" Dean asked, looking anxiously at Tessa.

"That's it," Tessa confirmed, smiling back at him before she stepped back and vanished.

"What-?" Sam began.

"Probably getting to safety, which is what we should be doing right now," Dean said. "Trust me, pissing off Alastair isn't something you do if you want to stay healthy…"

The two hunters started walking once more, but they had only managed to turn down a nearby alley down the street before Alastair appeared, looking mockingly at the ghostly hunter.

"You can't run, Dean," the demon said, slowly advancing towards them in what even Dean felt was excessive melodrama. "Not from me… I'm inside that angsty little noggin of yours…"

Before Dean and Sam could try anything, a strange blue lighting struck the demon, causing him to vanish as they watched.

"What the hell?" Dean asked; he wasn't going to complain if something else took care of the demon for him, but it did raise questions about what actually managed to capture him.

"Guess again," another voice said, the two spinning around to find Castiel standing behind them, the angel looking solemnly between the two men.

"What?" Sam said, clearly confused at this turn of events. "I just… what just happened?"

"What just happened?" Castiel repeated. "You both just saved a seal, and we captured Alastair. This was a victory."

"No thanks to you," Dean spat.

"What makes you say that?" Castiel asked, in his usual quizzical manner.

"You were here the whole time?"

"Enough of it," Castiel said, at least having the decency to look away.

"Well, thanks for your help with the iron," Dean noted.

"That script on the funeral home; we couldn't penetrate it," Castiel said defensively.

"There are wards against angels?" Sam said in surprise.

"Everything has wards," Castiel noted. "Why do you think I arranged for you to be here in the first place?"

" _You_ recruited us?" Dean said in surprise.

"That wasn't your friend Bobby who called, Dean," Castiel explained. "It wasn't Bobby who told Sam about the seal, or who contacted Bela and your grandmother for additional assistance."

"That was you?" Dean said, clearly uncertain how best to respond to that news. "If you want our help, why the hell didn't you just ask?"

"Because whatever I ask, you seem to do the exact opposite," Castiel responded.

"He's got a point," Sam said, looking over at Dean. "I mean, we _did_ want to stay when Uriel threatened to smite that town to stop Samhain…"

"Yeah, yeah, we don't listen to teacher; so what?" Dean said, glaring at his brother before turning that glare on the angel. "So what happens now? The people in this town, they just gonna start dying again?"

"Yes," Castiel said firmly.

"You can't just… let it stick?" Sam asked uncertainly. "I mean, I get that you can't stop death for everyone, but if they're already alive… can't you make a few exceptions and let them live?"

"Because of demonic interference," Castiel countered.

"You made an exception for me and Bela!" Dean protested. "Why do we get a break?"

"You're different," Castiel said at last, looking solemnly at Dean before he vanished once again, leaving the Winchesters looking solemnly at each other.

* * *

When he finally returned to his body after taking a brief detour to help Tessa talk to Cole, Dean was in a far from positive mood after everything he'd just heard. Saving a seal might be a decent victory against the demons, but after everything Anna had told them about the number of potential seals in existence, stopping the demons breaking one seal felt like tossing a bucket of water onto a forest fire, and even if Tessa had argued that Cole sticking around wasn't going to help his mother move on from his death, that still didn't make Dean feel any better about the fact that he'd basically convinced a little kid to accept the fact that he'd died.  
  
Add in all that stuff Tessa had said at the end about 'no such thing as miracles', and Dean _really_ didn't want to think too much about death right now; this whole mess was difficult enough without considering the possibility that the angels had some long-term agenda…  
  
As he sat up to take in his surroundings, it didn't take long to realise what had changed; there was a well-built bald man dressed in rough denim lying on the floor, the demon-killing knife buried in his forehead.  
  
"What the-?" he began, looking over at Bela and his grandmother.  
  
"Demon," Deanna finished for him. "He tried to attack, but he seemed to be surprised to find two of us here; Bela was able to distract him while I found that knife."  
  
"Huh," Dean said, re-evaluating his earlier thoughts as he looked at the body lying before them; one more dead demon might not be much, but at least it marked a more obvious accomplishment as opposed to everything else they'd done here just maintaining the status quo. "Wonder what he thought that would do?"  
  
"Maybe Alastair wasn't expecting Gran and Bela to be here?" Sam suggested. "I mean, they _did_ arrive here when we were just going over the case; maybe Alastair thought we'd… call someone else?"  
  
"You're thinking they were expecting Pamela or something?" Dean asked.  
  
"The blind psychic?" Bela said incredulously.  
  
"Hey, we don't know a lot of psychics; we needed someone who could get us out of our bodies on short notice, she's the best candidate that would come to mind," Dean said defensively, before he shrugged and indicated the book that they'd just used for their recent excursion. "Guess that's why Cas sent you guys here; makes it all a bit easier-"  
  
"Hold on; _Castiel_ sent us here?" Deanna interrupted. "Your friend Bobby Singer was the one who called us-"  
  
"Actually, Cas did that; thought we'd be more likely to listen to him as Bobby than if he called up as himself," Dean clarified, before he sighed in exasperation and looked around the room at his increasingly bizarre family. "We get dragged here to save a Seal, and all we get is the knowledge that this town's going to start dying off again…"  
  
Dean was so caught up in his own frustration about the comparative pointlessness of their latest accomplishment that he never realised that he'd just casually thought of Bela as part of the family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With 'On the Head of a Pin' up next, you may be interested to know that you will all soon learn where the title of this story came from, as well as Castiel's _real_ reason for saving Bela Talbot from Hell…
> 
> This is early Cas we're talking about; considering his trouble relating to the human condition early on, did anyone _really_ think that the _only_ reason he decided to save Bela was because he thought that she deserved another shot?


	29. Payback for Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we go; Dean faces his darker memories of Hell, and before this rewrite is over, I can assure you that Bela will learn a very particular secret that will explain my choice of title…

When he walked into his latest motel room, frustrated with their lack of progress at finding another possible clue to the location of a new Seal, Dean wasn't sure if he was more surprised or annoyed at the sight of Uriel and Castiel standing in front of them; he could tolerate Castiel up to a point, but he had really been hoping that the other guy would stay away from them for a while.

"You are needed," Uriel said, as footsteps from behind Dean suggested that Bela and his grandmother had come to join him and Sam.

"Didn't we _just_ do this?" Bela asked, looking indignantly at Uriel. "We saved a seal for you; doesn't that merit a few days off?"

"We raised you out of Hell for our purposes," Uriel said, a satisfied sneer on his face as he looked at Bela as though he wanted to remind her that she hadn't been included in their original orders. "Your issues don't concern us right now; seven angels from our garrison have been murdered, and the last one was killed tonight."

"Angels?" Deanna said, looking incredulously at Uriel, her shock apparently making her forget her usual concerns about interacting with angels. "Something killed _angels_?"

"We don't know what is responsible," Uriel said grimly. "We can handle it once we find it."

"Which is where you come in," Castiel added.

"You want our help finding it?" Sam asked. "I mean, a demon with the juice to ice angels has to be out of our league, right?"

"We don't need you to hunt for it," Uriel said firmly.

"Then why _are_ you here?" Dean asked.

"We have Alastair," Castiel explained.

"Great," Dean said, uninterested in the reminder of their other recent victory. "So he can name your trigger man."

"But he won't talk," Castiel admitted, apparently uncomfortable about admitting a failure. "Alastair's will is very strong. We've arrived at an impasse."

"Yeah, well, he's like a black belt in torture," Dean said. "I mean, you guys are out of your league."

"That's why we've come to his student," Uriel said, the neutral expression as he spoke the only thing that saved one of the other three humans present from trying something as he looked at Dean. "You happen to be the most qualified interrogator we've got."

"Excuse me?" Deanna said, glaring coldly at the angel. "You expect to come here and ask my _grandson_ to-"

"Do what must be done," Uriel said, glaring over at her as he walked towards Dean. "And who said anything about asking?"

Before Sam or the women could react, the room was suddenly devoid of angels, Dean vanishing along with them, leaving the other three to look at each other in frustration.

"Now the _angels_ are abducting people?" Deanna said, looking at Sam in frustration. "Just when I think we understand what we're up against…"

"We can worry about that later," Sam said grimly, as he looked between the two women. "Do you have anything we can use to find Dean?"

Considering that Ruby was a topic he was still uncomfortable discussing with Dean, he certainly wasn't going to ask for her help when Bela and his grandmother were available to help him find his brother, but that didn't mean he couldn't use the last of his current 'blood supply' to deal with Alastair once he got there…

* * *

Looking at the bound Alastair in the warehouse where Castiel and Uriel had taken him, chained to a hexacle in the middle of what was apparently an old Enochian devil's trap, Dean couldn't believe that he was doing this.  
  
He'd come this far trying to forget what he'd become in Hell- telling Sam about it was the last time he'd given his actions any serious thought- but with Castiel now asking him to go back to that part of his history…  
  
Even if the motive was fundamentally better now, he still didn't enjoy what he was being made to do; he was just grateful that Uriel had backed off after he asked to talk to Cas on his own. He understood that the angels were panicking about something being able to kill them, but he was far from willing to talk to that git any more than he had to; Cas might be just as distant, but at least the guy had shown some humanity by getting Bela out when he didn't have to.  
  
"You guys don't walk enough, you're gonna get flabby," he said, trying to break the silence as he looked at the remaining angel, only to get no response. "You know, I'm starting to think junkless has a better sense of humor than you do."  
  
"Uriel's the funniest angel in the garrison," Castiel responded. "Ask anyone."  
  
"What's going on, Cas?" Dean asked; considering the demands of the situation, he wasn't even in the mood to make a few brief jokes about what angels must be like on open-mike nights if Uriel was meant to have a good sense of humour. "Since when does Uriel put a leash on _you_?"  
  
"Since I rescued Bela Talbot, my superiors have begun to question my sympathies," the angel said grimly.  
  
"Your sympathies?" Dean repeated in surprise.  
  
"I was getting too close to the humans in my charge; you and Bela in particular," Castiel explained. "They feel I've begun to express emotions, the doorways to doubt; this can impair my judgment."  
  
Under other circumstances, Dean would have made a comment about how he was glad to know that the angel even _had_ emotions, but right now he had bigger priorities than praising the emotional development of the only angel he actually liked.  
  
"Well," he said grimly as he walked past Castiel, "tell Uriel, or whoever… you do not want me doing this, trust me."  
  
"Want it, no," Castiel said solemnly. "But I have been told we need it."  
  
"You ask me to open that door and walk through it… you will not like what walks back out," Dean said.  
  
He'd been doing his best to suppress those memories ever since he'd remembered what he'd done to Bela during his infection with that ghost flu; drawing them on to the extent that would be needed to make _Alastair_ break…  
  
"For what it's worth, I would give anything not to have you do this," Castiel noted.  
  
There was nothing that Dean could really say to that; Castiel might have dragged him over here, but at least he didn't seem to be that enthusiastic about this.  
  
Still… if demons really were killing angels… even if he didn't like the winged dicks, anything that could take _them_ out was probably bad news.  
  
In the end, the sooner they could work out what was going on here, the sooner he could get away from this part of his past, hopefully once and for all…

* * *

As he wheeled the loaded cart of tools into the warehouse, Dean just wished that Alastair could actually have the decency to look somewhat apprehensive at what was about to happen to him. The bastard might be the grand master of torture, but even a demon couldn't enjoy _everything_ about what they went through down in Hell, right?  
  
Unfortunately, it seemed as though Alastair just loved to prove him wrong; even as he removed the cloth covering the cart and began to set up the implements for what he was about to do, the demon just kept on singing, shimmying his shoulders slightly in the chains as though he wanted to start dancing.  
  
"I'm sorry," the demon said, laughing at Dean's attempts to ignore him as he removed the cloth from the table and walked over to stand in front of his former torturer. "This is a very serious, very emotional situation for you. I shouldn't laugh, it's just that… I mean, are they serious? They sent you to torture me?"  
  
"You got one chance," Dean said. "One. Tell me who's killing the angels. I want a name."  
  
"You think I'll see all your scary toys and spill my guts?" Alastair asked mockingly.  
  
"Oh, you'll spill your guts, one way or another," Dean said firmly; confidence was key in this kind of situation. "I just didn't wanna ruin my shoes."  
  
"Oh yeah," Alastair said, sounding like he was almost enjoying that thought.  
  
"Now answer the question."  
  
"Or what?" the demon asked. "You'll work me over? But then, maybe you don't want to. Maybe you're, ah… scared to?"  
  
"I'm here, aren't I?" Dean pointed out; the guy's sing-song tone was aggravating, but after experiencing Alastair's worst in Hell, his verbal taunts left something to be desired.  
  
"Not entirely," Alastair countered. "You left part of yourself back in the Pit. Let's see if we can get the two of you back together again, shall we?"  
  
"You're gonna be disappointed," Dean noted, as he walked back to the cart; he might have to do this, but he wasn't going to enjoy it for the same reasons that he had in the Pit.  
  
"You have not disappointed me so far," Alastair said, as Dean began to study his available tools. "Come on. You gotta want a little payback for everything I did to you. For all the pokes and prods, hmm?"  
  
Dean refused to give the demon a response, focusing on choosing the tool to start this job.  
  
"No?" Alastair said. "How about for all the things I did to your daddy?"  
  
That statement, more than anything else, made Dean look up; it might have been almost three years, but the thought of this asshole getting his hands on John Winchester…  
  
"I had your pop on my rack for close to a century," Alastair explained.  
  
"You can't stall forever," Dean said grimly, assessing the contents of the available bottles; holy water was obvious, but some of these others offered interesting possibilities…  
  
"John Winchester," Alastair continued. "Made a good name for himself. A hundred years… After each session, I'd make him the same offer I made you; I'd put down my blade if he picked one up."  
  
"Just give me the demon's name, Alastair," Dean said, refusing to listen to this crap; this demon asshole clearly couldn't do anything more than reinforce how his dad kept on kicking demon ass even when he was in Hell…  
  
"But he said nein each and every time," Alastair continued, chuckling at the thought. "Oh, damned if I couldn't break him… Pulled out all the stops, but John, he was… made of something unique; the stuff of heroes. And then came _Dean_ … Dean Winchester… I thought I was up against it _again_."  
  
Grabbing a bottle of something alcoholic, Dean took a swig of the contents; he had brought this with the hope of using it to burn some of Alastair's injuries, but he needed this if he was going to focus on the task right now…  
  
"But daddy's little _girl_ , he broke," Alastair chuckled. "He broke in thirty. Oh, just not the man your daddy wanted you to be, huh, Dean?"  
  
Picking up a bottle of holy water, Dean transferred the contents into a goblet; if he was going to do this, he might as well start with the one tool Hell had never possessed.  
  
"Now… now we're getting somewhere," Alastair said, before shaking his head at Dean's chosen tool. "Holy water? Come on, Grasshopper; you're gonna have to get creative to impress me."  
  
"You know something, Alastair?" Dean said, picking up a needle as he filled it with holy water. "I could still dream. Even in hell. And over and over and over, you know what I dreamt? I dreamt of this moment… and believe me, I got a few ideas."  
  
He hated having to use these skills, but as he drove the needle into the demon, a perverse part of him was going to enjoy seeing Alastair suffer even without the promise of the final result…


	30. The Breaking of the First Seal

Standing outside the room where Alastair was being contained, Castiel did his best to focus his attention outwards rather than pay too much attention to what was happening in the room before him. His senses in a vessel were comparatively limited when he was staying in one place like this, but with a demon as powerful as Alastair, it was important to find the balance between standing guard in case of discovery and limiting his strength in case he drew too many demons to their location.

This approach was fundamentally brutal, and Castiel didn't entirely like it, but it was the only avenue of investigation left to them if they wanted to find what was killing the angels.

A light exploded above him, but he didn't need that obvious clue to know what had just happened; the arrival of any other angels here would have stirred his senses, particularly this one.

"Anna," he said, glancing around to see his former superior.

"Hello, Castiel," the restored angel said, still in the human body he'd seen her in during that fateful confrontation.

"Your human body," Castiel noted, looking uncertainly at her before deciding not to ask the question.

"It was destroyed, I know," Anna said. "But I guess I'm sentimental. Called in some old favors and…"

The sound of Alastair screaming prompted her to stop talking.

"You shouldn't be here," Castiel said, looking away from her. "We still have orders to kill you."

"Somehow I don't think you'll try," Anna noted, walking around the table. "Where's Uriel?"

"He went to receive revelation," Castiel replied.

"Right," Anna said, standing at the other end of the table, the two only just managing to hear as Alastair made some sarcastic comment in the warehouse.

"Why are you letting Dean do this?" she asked, turning to glare at him.

"He's doing God's work," Castiel responded, turning away from the angel.

"Torturing?" Anna asked. "That's God's work? Stop him, Cas, please. Before you ruin the one real weapon you have."

"Who are we to question the will of God?" Castiel asked.

What he'd done for Bela had been a rare moment of initiative, but if he had been ordered to leave her there, he would have done so; Heaven's mission was too important for him to do anything else.

This time around, he had explicit orders, and he was going to adhere to them.

"Unless this isn't his will," Anna said.

"Then where do the orders come from?" Castiel asked.

"I don't know," Anna said, sounding disturbingly unconcerned about that. "One of our superiors, maybe, but not Him."

As Castiel turned around, she walked up to him with a firm glare, staring critically at her former subordinate while the room behind them was filled with strange gargling sounds as Dean spoke to him. "The father you love… you think he wants this? You think he'd ask this of you? You think this is righteous?"

Castiel couldn't bring himself to answer that question; right now, as much as he wanted to believe in the plan, he had nothing to say that could defend what was happening behind them.

"What you're feeling?" Anna said, reaching out to him as Alastair screamed again. "It's called doubt. These orders are wrong and you know it. But you can do the right thing. You're afraid, Cas. I was too. But together, we can still-"

"Together?" Castiel repeated, yanking his hand away at the reminder of what she was. "I am _nothing_ like you. You _fell_."

He walked away from her, disgusted at the reminder of how close he had come to following Lucifer's example; he would never be like his former brother. "Go."

"Cas-" Anna began.

"Go," Castiel repeated firmly.

As his former superior vanished, Castiel returned to his silent contemplation, wishing that he could feel less conflicted about everything.

Rescuing Bela Talbot from Hell had been a comparatively simple decision- his superiors had simply advised him not to bother as she would be too far gone by the time he got there; he'd practically been _obliged_ to take action when he learned otherwise- but what Anna was asking him to do…

* * *

Dean had to give the angels credit; torture might not be a specialty in Heaven, but he'd found some interesting tools in the trolley they'd set up for him. He'd already experimented with the demon-killing knife dipped in holy water to increase its effectiveness, avoiding any fatal injuries, but exposing Alastair to holy water in more than just the usual splash had its own advantages.  
  
"You're just not getting deep enough," Alastair said, spitting out blood and holy water as Dean moved salt into another container. "Well, you lack the resources. Reality is just, I don't know… too concrete up here. Honestly, Dean... You have no idea how bad it really was… and what you really did for us…"  
  
"Shut up," Dean whispered; he'd known that demons could take a lot of punishment, but he had to wonder just what Alastair was doing to keep that meatsuit in a state where it could talk after everything he was doing to it (Holy artefacts might not hurt the human host after the demon was exorcised, but it had to cause the demon some kind of pain).  
  
"The whole bloody thing, Dean," Alastair chuckled. "The reason Lilith wanted you and your little chickadee down there in the first-"  
  
Refusing to listen to anything Alastair had to say about Bela, Dean poured the salt down Alastair's throat, smirking at Alastair's muffled scream of agony before he stepped back, watching as the demon choked on his own blood and the salt pouring through his system before he stepped back, watching grimly as Alastair coughed.  
  
"Something caught in my throat," the torturer croaked, after spending what felt like several minutes coughing up so much blood that a human would have to have a disease to produce that much liquid. "I think it's my throat."  
  
"Well, strap in, 'cause I'm just starting to have fun," Dean said, as he turned back to his tool trolley (Focus on the necessity and forget about _what_ he was doing in favour of _why_ he was doing it…).  
  
"You know, it was supposed to be your father," Alastair continued, Dean pouring more holy water on the dagger as he tried to avoid listening to Alastair's words. "He was supposed to bring it on… but, in the end, it was you."  
  
"Bring what on?" Dean asked, suddenly curious despite himself as he covered the knife with holy water.  
  
"Oh, every night, the same offer, remember?" Alastair chuckled, as Dean shook salt onto the knife. "Same as your father… and finally you said 'Sign me up'. Oh, the first time you picked up my razor, the first time you sliced into that weeping bitch… That was the first seal."  
  
Turning to face Alastair, Dean remained silent, his face immobile as he walked up to the demon, refusing to accept the implications of what he'd just learned.  
  
"You're lying," he said grimly.  
  
What he'd done to Bela was dark enough; he _couldn't_ have broken a Seal…  
  
"And it is written that the first seal shall be broken when a righteous man sheds blood in hell," Alastair said, his tone suggesting a man quoting something rather than making a statement of his own. "As he breaks, so shall it break."  
  
Dean hated to admit it, but that certainly fit the pattern of the Seals he and his family had dealt with so far. Ghosts rising that should have stayed dead, the demon of Halloween being awoken after centuries of confinement, fathers assaulting their children in the most horrific and intimate way imaginable, Reapers being murdered themselves…  
  
Seals seemed to rely on the natural order being violated; even if he didn't think he qualified as 'righteous', a good man going to Hell to torture others certainly fit that pattern.  
  
"We had to break the first seal before any others," Alastair continued as Dean turned away, trying to conceal his shock at that thought. "Only way to get the dominoes to fall, right? Topple the one at the front of the line."  
  
Dean could console himself with the knowledge that he'd still tried to hold out, and he'd been forgiven for his crimes by the only person who had a _right_ to forgive him, but the idea that he'd _helped_ the demons put this all into motion…  
  
"When we win," Alastair continued, "when we bring on the apocalypse and burn this earth down, we'll owe it all to you, Dean Winchester."  
  
Dean felt like he was going to be sick at that thought.  
  
After everything he'd done to try and stop monsters since his father had taken him on his first hunt, he'd set the ball rolling for the world to end and the Devil to walk Earth once again?  
  
"Believe me, son, I wouldn't lie about this," Alastair noted. "It's kind of a religious sort of thing with me."  
  
"No," Dean admitted, after Alastair had remained silent for a moment, giving him the chance to collect himself and focus on what mattered most.  
  
"I don't think you're lying. But even if the demons do win… you won't be there to see it."  
  
He turned around, raising the knife to start a new round of torture, only to find himself facing Alastair, now free of his bonds and the devil's trap, .  
  
"You should talk to your plumber about the pipes," Alastair smirked, before striking Dean with such force that he was sent down to the ground. Having lost his grip on the knife, Dean tried to retaliate with a punch, but Alastair was still unnaturally fast despite the punishment he'd taken earlier, outmanoeuvring Dean's attempts to fight back with punches and scratches. Dean was barely even acting on instinct by the end, pathetically struggling against his foe until he was pinned to the hexacle that had so recently been used to keep Alastair contained, his tormentor grinning at the 'restoration' of their former status quo.  
  
"You got a lot to learn, boy," Alastair smirked, as he held Dean up by the throat. "So I'll see you back in class bright and early Monday morning…"  
  
Dean had just begun to prepare himself for the next assault when Alastair suddenly dropped him, Dean looking up through battered eyes to see Castiel facing the demon, plunging Ruby's knife into his heart. Dean smirked in brief satisfaction at the sight, but the smile faltered as the knife showed no obvious sign of killing Alastair; Dean thought he could see the demon wince, but that could have just been from what he'd done earlier making the meatsuit relatively stiff rather than the knife.  
  
"Well, almost," Alastair smirked, apparently unhindered by the glowing knife in his shoulder. "Looks like God is on my side today."  
  
In response, Castiel raised his hand towards the demon, followed by Alastair being sent flying into the wall behind him. Dean thought for a moment that the angel had thrown him, but then Bela and Sam walked into view, their hands outstretched as they glared at the thing that had tortured him for so many years in Hell, and Dean's immediate question was answered.  
  
"Stupid pet tricks," Alastair said, as something hurried over to crouch behind Dean; he was briefly panicked at the new arrival, but relaxed when he realised that it was only his grandmother, looking anxiously between him and his brother.  
  
"Who's killing the angels?" Sam asked, Bela lowering her arm to clutch at her shoulder; evidently she'd been pushing her remaining abilities slightly too far with that last stunt, but Sam still appeared to have a fair amount of juice to do whatever he was doing. "How are they doing it?"  
  
"You think I'm gonna tell you?" Alastair asked, chuckling weakly.  
  
"Yeah, I do," Sam said, twisting his hand as he glared at the demon. Alastair's eyes turned white as Deanna helped Dean to his feet, Bela hurrying over to the other side of him, both glaring intently at the man who'd done so much damage.  
  
If Dean had been feeling better, he knew that he would have been objecting to Sam inflicting this kind of punishment with his powers, but after what he'd just taken, he was going to take this immediate victory rather than worry about other details…  
  
"How are the demons killing angels?" Sam repeated, clenching his fist as he glared at Alastair.  
  
"I… don't… know," Alastair replied, his voice hoarse and strained as though it cost him just to speak.  
  
"Right," Sam said, turning his fist.  
  
"It's not us," Hell's chief torturer continued. "We're not doing it."  
  
"I don't believe you," Sam said.  
  
"Lilith is not behind this," Alastair countered, apparently regaining his old strength as he stared at Sam, the rest of the room forgotten. "She wouldn't kill seven angels. Oh, she'd kill a hundred, a thousand…"  
  
Sam halted his actions as he lowered his hand, leaving Alastair up against the wall as he looked contemplatively at his foe.  
  
Dean hated to admit it, but Alastair brought up a good point; if demons had suddenly found a means of killing angels, they would have been using it on a massive scale, rather than just taking out a few minor targets.  
  
"Oh, go ahead," Alastair chuckled, after taking a few deep breaths. "Send me back, if you can."  
  
"I'm stronger than that now," Sam responded. "Strong enough to kill."  
  
With that ominous statement, Sam held out his hand once more, closing his eyes as he concentrated, before gold light flared inside Alastair. His skeleton illuminated from the inside out, Alastair released a drawn-out scream before he fell to the ground, the host clearly dead and the demon most likely the same.  
  
It was only after confirming that his former torturer was now definitely deceased that Dean felt comfortable passing out.

* * *

Looking at Dean as he lay in his hospital bed, battered and bruised from the fight he'd endured with Alastair, Deanna and Sam off getting some food from the cafeteria, Bela had no idea what she was feeling.  
  
She could appreciate the angels' need to find something capable of killing them- even if she didn't like Uriel that much, they were all trying to keep the Seals intact- but the fact that they'd forced Dean to go back to that part of his personal history was bad enough, even if it hadn't all turned out to be a pointless endeavour that had only resulted in Dean being beaten like this. It was sheer luck that the spellbook she and Deanna had acquired recently had included a tracking spell that had allowed them to find Dean before Alastair had done anything more serious to him (And she wasn't even sure if she was ready to explore her relief about that right now; she and Dean still weren't comfortable trying to define their relationship right now).  
  
As if that wasn't enough to occupy her thoughts, while Bela was sure that she wasn't the only one who was grateful that Sam had been able to deal with Alastair for good, she couldn't help but wonder where his abilities actually came from. The demon blood that Azazel had apparently given him as a child had supposedly stopped having any effect on him after the demon had been killed, and Dean and Bobby had both confirmed that Sam hadn't demonstrated any unusual powers in the year after Dean made his deal, so what had changed…?  
  
"I need help."  
  
"Help?" Bela repeated, turning to look at Castiel as he stood in the corner of the room, looking unusually uncomfortable for his usual neutral manner. "What is it now?"  
  
"The devil's trap should not have broken," Castiel explained, looking grimly at Dean as he lay before them. "Alastair has rejected the idea that demons are responsible, and now Uriel informs me that our superiors have ordered that further investigation into this matter is to cease. I am…"  
  
The angel sighed. "I am starting to wonder if our father is even issuing the orders any more; there may be something wrong…"  
  
"And you're asking _me_ for help?" Bela asked, looking at him sceptically. "If this is about my experience with crap parents-"  
  
"It is not," Castiel clarified as he looked at her. "I am asking you for help because… at this moment, with Dean out of action, I trust your insight."  
  
Bela made a mental note not to be offended at Castiel's last statement- faced with a choice between herself and Dean to save the day, Dean _did_ have more experience- simply nodding at him in confirmation before the angel took her by the arm-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To whom it may concern, Sam didn't call Ruby for help this time around, but with more hunters actively working with them to protect the Seals, and since he knows that they don't entirely trust Ruby, he's taken to keeping flasks of her blood available in case he needs a 'top-up' while meeting with her in secret to get refills.
> 
> I apologise about the delay, but I promise you this; next chapter will reveal why Castiel chose to save Bela Talbot from Hell…


	31. The Secret Seal

Bela was left with the disconcerting feeling that something had just grabbed her by the stomach and given her a vigorous shake, but after the initial disorientation had passed, she looked around and found herself back in the prison room where she, Deanna and Sam had saved Dean from Alastair (She wasn't going to believe that Alastair could have actually hurt Castiel until she had hard evidence to that effect; he might had tried to exorcise Castiel from his vessel, but that didn't mean he could have succeeded).

"I thought about trying to talk to Anna, but things with her…" Castiel began, shaking his head grimly as he studied the room around him. "They are… complicated."

"Anna's alive?" Bela asked, looking at him in surprise.

"She was able to call in some old favours and gain permission to use her human body as her vessel," Castiel explained, before he turned his attention back to the devil's trap before them. "This was the strongest Devil's Trap that I know of…"

"What's complicated about things with Anna?" Bela asked. "She used to be your superior-"

"And now we are under orders to kill her," Castiel said, tone grim as he studied the trap. "I have been… considering disobedience… but it is hard to follow her example, and she will not offer me advice."

"Which is where I come in?" Bela asked.

"I need a new perspective," Castiel explained, turning from the trap to look at her. "I am certain that no demon could have broken this trap, and the leaking tap that damaged it was not in such a state when I chose this area as Alastair's prison, so what happened here?"

"You're thinking… sabotage?" Bela said, looking at Castiel in surprise. "But who would do something like that?"

"Only those who knew that Alastair was here," Castiel said, as he took in the building around him. "With the recent assaults, my contact with the rest of the garrison has been limited; no demon could have come close without being detected, and aside from Dean, Anna and myself, only one other person knew that Alastair was being kept here before you found us…"

"Me."

Spinning around, Bela wasn't entirely surprised to find Uriel standing behind her and Castiel, holding a short but dangerous-looking rounded blade and a thick handle that resembled no weapon she'd ever seen before.

"You brought _that_ here?" Uriel said, looking scathingly at Bela before he refocused his attention on Castiel.

"I believed that I would have more time before you came," Castiel admitted, focusing his gaze on Uriel before he sighed solemnly. "And I will confess… I wanted to be wrong."

" _He_ did this?" Bela said, looking between the two angels in shock before she focused on Uriel. "You're _helping_ the demons break Lucifer out?"

"Alastair should never have been captured," Uriel said, in a very satisfied tone as he focused his gaze on Castiel, evidently dismissing Bela as unimportant. "Taking him alive was inconvenience that had to be dealt with; Alastair should have escaped after killing your precious pet monkey, and you would have continued happily scapegoating the demons."

"For killing the other angels?" Bela asked, indicating the weapon in Uriel's hands. "With that?"

"An angelic blade," Castiel said, his own gaze fixed on Uriel's weapon. "We have been forbidden to use those since assuming vessels; the risk of another acquiring our weapons and using them against us was too great… why would you turn against our kin?"

"Hardly," Uriel said, actually having the nerve to look indignant at the description as he looked at his fellow angel. "My work is conversion. How long have we waited here? How long have we played this game by rules that make no sense?"

"It is our father's world, Uriel-" Castiel countered, turning around as though he couldn't even look at his friend.

"Our father?" Uriel interjected. "He stopped being that, if he ever was, the moment he created _them_. Humanity, his favorites… this whining, puking larva."

" _Hey_!" Bela said, glaring indignantly at the dark-skinned angel.

"Are you trying to convert me?" Castiel asked, turning back to look at Uriel.

"I wanted you to join me," Uriel clarified. "And I still do. With you, we can be powerful enough to…"

"To?" Castiel repeated.

"To raise our brother," Uriel said, in a disturbingly reverential tone.

"You _want_ to raise Lucifer?" Bela said in shock. "Why?"

"You should have seen him at the beginning," Uriel said, the normally blunt angel sounding almost wistful; Bela got the impression that he hadn't even heard her indignation. "He was so strong… so beautiful… and he refused to bow to humanity. He was punished for defending us… if you want to believe in something, Castiel, believe in him."

"No!" Bela said, looking back at Castiel in protest. "Castiel, don't do this; you're _not_ -"

"He is _not_ your puppet," Uriel said, glaring firmly at Bela before looking at Castiel. "I have only killed those who said no, Castiel; others have already joined my cause. Please, brother, don't fight me; help spread the word. Help me bring on the Apocalypse. All you have to do is be unafraid."

"For the first time in a while," Castiel said solemnly, "I am."

Uriel's satisfied smile in response was cut short as Castiel punched Uriel with such force that he sent the other angel flying into a solid brick wall several feet behind him. As Uriel got back up, Castiel raised his hands in a manner that put Bela in mind of a boxer as the two angels began to trade punches, only for Uriel to quickly gain the other hand; whether he was actually stronger or it was just the fact that he had the stronger vessel, Bela didn't know, but this wasn't the time to wonder about that. As Castiel was thrown into a wooden pillar, Bela checked the hole in the wall created by Uriel's earlier impact, and quickly picked up the silver blade that the renegade angel had shown Castiel earlier.

She didn't know if this thing would work for a human, but there had to be a reason why Heaven had been afraid of these things being stolen; if she could just get the right moment… the two angels were so focused on the fight that she could easily move into position behind Uriel, but he was still moving too fast…

As Castiel sent Uriel staggering back, Bela briefly hoped that he might be able to pull this off, but that hope ended when Uriel struck Castiel in the head with a pipe, knocking the other angel down once again.

"You can't win, Uriel," Castiel said, glaring up at the angel despite his battered face. "I still serve God…"

"You haven't even _met_ the man-!" Uriel began, drawing his fist back for another punch, before Bela seized her chance, tightened her grip the fallen angel blade, and rammed it into the back of Uriel's neck, looking in satisfaction as it came out the other side of his throat and pierced his vocal chords into the bargain.

"I don't know where angels go when they die," Bela said, glaring at Uriel as blue light glowed around the wound she'd just inflicted, "but if God's involved, I have a feeling that he is _not_ going to approve of what you've been doing."

As Uriel's eyes turned a brilliant white, Bela removed the blade and leapt backwards out of harm's way, shielding her eyes as a burst of white light filled the room. When it had returned to normal, Uriel's body was lying on the ground, with wings made of ash spread out from his shoulders as though his previously-invisible wings had burned away as he died.

"Thank you," Castiel said, nodding in approval at Bela as he got back to his feet.

"Did you-?" Bela began.

"I suspected Uriel, but I swear that I did not know he would choose this moment to attack," Castiel said, looking firmly at her. "I merely sought your insight as someone whose perspective would be less… tainted… than my own, and I felt it unwise to ask the Winchesters for aid when Sam and Deanna are so focused on Dean right now."

"And I'm not concerned?" Bela asked.

"You are better at compartmentalising when dealing with such things," Castiel clarified. "The Winchesters are…"

"The Winchesters," Bela finished for Castiel, smiling at the angel in understanding before she looked back at the fallen angel. "We need to talk to Dean."

* * *

When she found herself standing by Dean's bed once again- angel travel felt weird, but it was certainly fast, Bela would give it that- the formerly self-centred thief was struck by how fragile Dean looked. He'd taken some knocks during past hunts, naturally, but this was the first time she could recall seeing him look so battered, as though he'd faced something completely out of his league…  
  
Seeking him in such a state also left Bela with the uncomfortable realisation that she felt more strongly for him than she'd anticipated. Since their first night together while they were trying to save Anna, she'd known that she and Dean had a bond that went beyond casual sex, even if they were both reluctant to say anything; neither of them were the type to get 'mushy', after all.  
  
"Bela?" Dean said, smiling briefly as he looked at her, before his smile faltered as he registered the other presence in the room. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"I came to apologise," Castiel replied. "The devil's trap holding Alastair was sabotaged by Uriel; he was the one responsible for the deaths of the angels."  
  
"He _what_?" Dean said, looking at Castiel incredulously. "How-?"  
  
"He had a blade of some sort that could be used against angels; Castiel hadn't considered that as a possibility because all angels were told not to use those weapons in case of… well, _this_ ," Bela said, shrugging slightly before she realised something and looked at Castiel. "By the way-"  
  
"You may keep it," Castiel said.  
  
"Keep what?" Dean asked.  
  
"Uriel's blade?" Bela said, staring at Castiel in shock. "But-"  
  
"It will be effective against demons as well as angels," Castiel explained. "You used it to save my life; I trust that you will not use it against us."  
  
"…Thank you," Bela said, bemused at the idea that she was being trusted with such a potentially dangerous weapon even as she put it away in her inside jacket pocket.  
  
"You're not getting out of this by giving us presents, Cas," Dean interjected, glaring at the angel. "Did you know about the First Seal?"  
  
"We did," Castiel said, his expression actually uncomfortable as he looked at Dean.  
  
"The First Seal?" Bela repeated in confusion. "What-?"  
  
"A Righteous Man Sheds Blood in Hell," Dean said, glaring at the angel as he spoke, Bela restricting herself to a gasp of understanding as she realised what Dean was talking about. "And you didn't think I should know?"  
  
"We laid siege to Hell to get you out once we had discovered Lilith's plan for you-" Castiel began.  
  
"But you were just too late," Dean finished for the angel, staring at him in frustration. "You really dropped the ball on that one, didn't you? I mean, you screwed up with the Witnesses, your plan for Samhain was to basically nuke the place, and we were the ones who saved Tessa… have you guys actually managed to stop _any_ Seals on your own?"  
  
The room fell silent after that statement, until Castiel spoke again.  
  
"The Corrupted Innocent, Broken by her Salvation."  
  
"What?" Dean and Bela said, looking sharply over at the angel.  
  
"There was another Seal in danger of being broken when I went into Hell to rescue you," Castiel explained, looking solemnly between the two before his gaze focused on Bela. "Did you never wonder why a demon would have _approached_ you to offer you a deal?"  
  
"Well… later on, yes, but at the time I thought it was just… just…" Bela trailed off, as though ashamed to realise how little thought she'd really given to the whole issue, before she realised the implications of Castiel's last statement. "You mean… _I_ was a Seal?"  
  
"You were an innocent in torment who took an opportunity to escape that torment that would have damned you to become a monster greater than your tormentor," Castiel explained. "It was the perfect criteria for a Seal; as you have noticed, the most potent Seals rely on the corruption of the natural order, and manipulating an innocent into going to Hell because of the actions of another is a perfect example."  
  
"They _made_ her make a deal so that she'd go to Hell because her father was a piece of shit?" Dean said, looking at the angel in horror. "Damn, that's twisted…"  
  
"So you _were_ ordered to save me?" Bela asked, forgetting her usual good will towards the angel as she stood up from the bed to glare at him. "All this time, you've been _lying_ -?"  
  
"No," Castiel interjected firmly. "When I was sent to retrieve Dean from Hell, I was instructed to ignore you as my superiors believed that you would be irredeemably corrupted by your time in Hell so far; I chose to disregard that order on my own."  
  
"Oh," Bela said, uncertain how she should feel about that.  
  
On the one hand, it hurt to realise that Castiel had rescued her for a reason beyond him simply thinking that she didn't deserve to be in Hell, but the knowledge that he'd actually _defied orders_ to save her had to mean that he'd still seen _something_ worth saving in her…  
  
"Yeah, so you saved one Seal out of a possible six hundred when the other guys only need to break a tenth of that; big whoop," Dean said, looking scathingly at Castiel. "C'mon, the odds were against us when we _didn't_ have some of the angels trying to break the Seals as well; add in the sheer number of the things out there, and we're-"  
  
"No."  
  
"What?" Dean said, looking at Bela in surprise.  
  
"You don't get to convince me to make a stand and then give up when things get tough," the former thief said, glaring coldly at Dean. "We've both been to Hell once already; I am _not_ going to let the world go back there if there's even the _slightest_ chance we can stop it!"  
  
"But-"  
  
"And do _not_ say it's hopeless; we've already saved _some_ Seals, and most of those could only be broken at specific times, so for all we know the demons could reach a point where they've been so busy trying to break some Seals that they've missed the chance to break something we couldn't stop," Bela interjected, moving over to squat over Dean in the bed, even as she took care not to actually sit on him; Alastair hadn't broken anything that she could recall, but she didn't want to risk aggravating his bruises. "We're out of hell, your grandmother's alive, and we've saved at least four Seals since we started working together; you do _not_ get to quit just because you're having a bad day!"  
  
Lost for anything else to say as he looked back at her, Dean finally smiled at her in uncertain gratitude.  
  
"You've come a long way," he said at last.  
  
"I had good teachers," Bela replied, leaning over to give him a brief, gentle kiss before she sat back and glared at him. "Which means you do _not_ get to give up just when I started to care; clear?"  
  
"Understood," Dean said.  
  
"Good," Bela said, leaning over again to give him a more detailed kiss as Castiel left the room, a slight smile on the angel's face at the sight of his two charges.  
  
He was still reeling from the revelation that some of his siblings had betrayed them, but he had informed his superiors and steps were being taken to clean up Uriel's potential allies; right now, his priority had to be ensuring that the Winchesters and Bela Talbot were ready to continue the fight…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, hope that met with everyone's approval; the core concept of this story came from the idea of Bela as another Seal, so I eagerly anticipate your thoughts on the matter.
> 
> Anyway, with Dean in a more stable place, Zachariah won't be dropping them in that fake life any time soon- I was planning on writing it and making Bela Dean's wife who worked in antiquities, but as I finished this chapter I realised that it isn't needed- but coming up next, we _will_ be meeting the boys' not-so-favourite writer…


	32. Meeting Chuck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In advance, I should mention that, based on the title list of the 'Supernatural' books I found on the net, I'm assuming that, as the series progressed, Cuck started to write about multiple hunts in one book beyond just the obvious title, since no reference is made to stories like 'Red Sky at Morning' or 'All Hell Breaks Loose' being published as solo books despite Chuck having written about them.

After the emotional trauma caused by Alastair's revelation, Dean had demonstrated an unexpected vulnerability by asking if Bela and Deanna could stay with them for a while as he recovered. After learning what the demon had told him, his brother and grandmother had immediately agreed to his request, Deanna even assuring Dean that none of them blamed him for what he had done in Hell even with this latest revelation.

Despite their continued reassurance, Sam, Bela and Deanna had all agreed that the elder Winchester needed time before he was ready to go back on the road dealing with anything Apocalypse-related. As a result, their next hunt was nothing more than a fairly standard haunting; while investigating strange suicides, they'd discovered that the ghost of industrialist P. T. Sandover had been haunting his old offices, turning slackers into workaholics who committed suicide the second they failed to measure up to the new self-imposed standards.

Having determined that the last trace of Sandover's remains were skin cells in his old gloves, Deanna and Sam had sneaked in to burn the gloves while Bela remained with Dean, the older brother still needing time to heal from Alastair's assault. They'd had a close call with Sandover's ghost, but it had been easy enough to keep him occupied while they burned the gloves.

With that issue dealt with, Dean had accompanied Sam on what looked like a relatively lighter hunt, intending to clarify whether recent anomalies in the power supply of a few buildings indicated the presence of a ghost. Resting in their hotel room, Deanna was catching up on some of her research into the intervening decades, while Bela still found herself checking her bag for the angel blade that Castiel had allowed her to keep, as though she constantly needed to confirm that it was still there. She was just about to move on and look at something else when the boys returned, carrying a collection of books.

"Is everything all right?" Deanna asked, looking at the boys inquiringly. "Is there a ghost?"

"No idea," Dean said grimly. "We've got bigger problems right now."

"What?" Bela asked.

In response, Dean tossed one of the books to Bela, the ex-thief briefly glancing at the cover, which depicted two well-built men without shirts standing by an Impala under a full moon, before she looked at the back.

"'Along a lonely California highway, a mysterious woman in white lures men to their deaths'," she read, before her eyes widened as she took in the rest of the summary. "…'A terrifying phenomenon that may be Sam and Dean's first clue to their father's whereabouts'?"

"The shop owner accused us of being fans LARPing these books when we started talking about cold spots, so we asked about it, and he gave us all these," Dean explained, indicating the rest of the books. "They were all in the bargain bin when we got there- had some underground popularity but didn't make the big leagues and they stopped being published last year- but they've got pretty much every major hunt Sam and I have been on since we started hunting after he went to college."

"Every one?" Deanna asked, looking at her grandsons in surprise.

"Whoever wrote this knew about everything from the Colt to how to carry out exorcisms, and even knew about… some of the personal stuff," Sam said, shrugging awkwardly as he spread the books out on the bed before he turned on his laptop.

"They don't cover _all_ our hunts during that time frame, but when they look at them, they go to a _lot_ of effort," Dean said, sitting down on the bed and picking up one book in particular, the title proclaiming it to be 'Route 666' with a demonic-looking truck on the cover. "I mean, this one has everything from the racist truck to me having sex; I'm full-frontal here!"

He suddenly blushed and looked awkwardly at Deanna, as though he'd just remembered that she was still there. "Uh, sorry 'bout that…"

"Believe me, I've spent enough time dealing with the image of Mary and John… making you to get over that," Deanna said, rolling her eyes at Dean before she picked up one of the later books. " _Sin City_? Did you go to Vegas?"

"Actually, the title refers to this time we dropped in on a town where demons were encouraging people to commit the standard sins," Sam said, shaking his head as he glanced at the book while continuing to work at the laptop. "And by the time that one was written, the writer seems to have started sticking a few hunts in one book; this one actually includes our first meeting with Bela and this time we were dealing with a ghost replaying fairy tales."

" _I'm_ in there?" Bela asked, looking sharply at the novel in Dean's hand.

"Oh yeah," Dean said, nodding at her. "And trust me, you're just as bitchy on the page as you were back then."

"Hey!"

"I said _back then_ ; I'm not saying you're like that _now_ ," Dean corrected, even as he gave her a slightly seductive grin before he looked over at Sam. "And it turns out-"

"Do you really want to go there?" Sam asked. Dean looked thoughtfully at his brother for a moment, but then he shrugged and sat back down, staring thoughtfully at the book.

"So," Bela asked, rolling her eyes and looking back at Sam once she was sure Dean wasn't going to say anything more about that, "what are you doing?"

"Looking up more details on this series," Sam explained, as he thoughtfully studied the screen. "The store owner was right; these things were so obscure they had almost zero circulation. They started in '05, the publisher put out a couple dozen before going bankrupt, and, uh, the last one- 'No Rest for the Wicked', ends with Dean going to Hell."

"I reiterate; freaking insane," Dean said, walking over to study Sam's laptop, which was now displaying what appeared to be a fan site for the series and a list of the published books. "This series actually had _fans_? What is all this?"

"See for yourself," Sam said, pushing the laptop closer to Dean.

"Man, for fans, they sure do complain a lot," Dean said, shaking his head as he studied the site. "Listen to this; Simpatico says 'the demon story line is trite, clichéd, and overall craptastic'. Yeah, well, screw you, Simpatico; we lived it."

"Someone says that when they're meant to be a _fan_?" Deanna said in surprise.

"That's the Internet," Bela shrugged at the older woman. "People find it a lot easier to engage in debates about that kind of thing now; you don't just talk with your fellow fans because you like something now."

"And that's not the end of it," Dean noted, scrolling down the site. "There are Sam girls, Dean girls, and… what's a slash fan?"

"As in… Sam slash Dean," Sam said, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms, clearly uncomfortable with what he was about to reveal. "Together."

Deanna looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or yell at that news, and Bela was fighting down the urge to chuckle herself. The idea of the Winchesters being gay alone struck her as ridiculous, given their obvious interest in women- Dean alone had made it pretty clear where he stood with her- but the idea of them doing _each other_ …

"Together," Dean repeated incredulously. "Like… _together_ together?"

"Yeah," Sam said.

"They do know we're brothers, right?"

"Doesn't seem to matter."

"Oh, come on; that's just _sick_ …" Dean said, shaking his head as he ran another search before he glanced over at Bela with a slight smile. "Hey, you've got some fans too!"

"Really?" Bela asked, uncertain if she should feel touched or disturbed at that revelation. "What do they say?"

"Alternates between hating you for getting me killed and pitying you for… stuff," Dean said, shaking his head slightly as he looked at the former thief. "If it helps, sounds like people started liking you more after some bits in the last book, even if the writing's apparently a bit vague about what made you… _you_."

"I see," Bela said, lost for anything better to say and making a mental note to read the books featuring her as soon as possible.

"We need to find this 'Carver Edlund'," Deanna said firmly. "If he has been writing all this, he has to have _some_ idea where he gets his ideas from."

"Yeah, that might not be so easy," Sam said grimly.

"Why not?" Deanna asked.

"No tax records, no known address," Sam clarified, taking back the laptop. "Looks like 'Carver Edlund' is a pen name."

"Somebody has to know who he is," Bela noted. "Maybe we could try and talk to the publishers?"

" _That_ could work," Sam nodded, studying another section of the page. "The person who seems to have been most involved in the publication is some woman called Sera Seige; if anyone can help us find Carver, it's her."

"Right then," Deanna said, nodding at Dean and Sam. "You two see what you can get from her; we'll confirm if there's anything to that ghost situation."

* * *

It didn't take long for Deanna and Bela to work out what was going on regarding the original haunting; it turned out to be a relatively simple, albeit tragic, case of an old woman having died in her apartment a few months ago and nobody noticing as there was nobody to look for her. After placing a call to the relevant authorities about the death, Deanna and Bela had salted and burned the corpse and left to rejoin Sam and Dean, who had managed to find the real name and address of Carver Edlund; his name was Chuck Shurely, and he lived in a small town only a few hours' drive away from where they were.  
  
As the two teams of hunters reunited in Shurley's home town, their cars drove alongside each other for a short distance until they reached Shurley's address. Dean and Sam parked directly outside the house, which looked as though nobody had done any work on it for a while, as Deanna and Bela parked just around the corner before joining the two men.  
  
"OK," Deanna said, looking firmly at her grandchildren, "you should take point on this one; if he stopped writing about you after you… went to Hell… he might not know who I am, and Bela may just be… complicated."  
  
"Check," Dean said, nodding in agreement at his grandmother before he and Sam walked up to the door and knocked, leaving the two women to move to the side of the house and watch. After a moment's waiting, the door opened to reveal a short, thin man wearing a striped dressing-gown over a vest and boxer shorts, with black socks and shoes on despite the rest of his attire being clearly unsuited for going out, with thick brown hair, a nearly trimmed beard, and a pointed expression.  
  
"You Chuck Shurley?" Dean asked.  
  
"The Chuck Shurley who wrote the 'Supernatural' books?" Sam added.  
  
"Maybe," the man said as he opened the door further. "Why?"  
  
"I'm Dean; this is Sam," Dean said. "The Dean and Sam you've been writing about."  
  
In response, the man who was apparently Chuck simply closed the door, only to open it again when Dean rang the bell.  
  
"Look, uh…" Chuck said awkwardly, "I appreciate your enthusiasm. Really, I do. It's, uh, it's always nice to hear from the fans. But, uh, for your own good, I strongly suggest you get a life."  
  
"See, here's the thing," Dean said, halting the smaller man's attempt to shut the door on him. "We have a life. You've been using it to write your books."  
  
"Now, wait a minute," Chuck said, staggering back into his house as Dean forced the door open. "Now, this isn't funny-"  
  
"Damn straight it's not funny," Dean glared at him.  
  
"Look," Sam said, trying to calm his brother down. "we just want to know how you're doing it."  
  
"I'm not doing anything," Chuck protested.  
  
"Are you a hunter?" Dean asked.  
  
"What?" Chuck said, clearly shaken at this news. "No, I'm a writer."  
  
"Then how do you know so much about demons?" Dean asked, advancing on Chuck and forcing him back onto a couch. "And Tuplas, and changelings?"  
  
"Is this some kind of 'Misery' thing?" Chuck asked as he sprawled on the couch in panic. "Ah, it is, isn't it? It's a 'Misery' thing!"  
  
"No, it's not a 'Misery' thing," Dean said indignantly. "Believe me, we are not fans!"  
  
"Well, then, what do you want?!" Chuck protested.  
  
"I'm Sam," Sam repeated. "And that's Dean."  
  
"Sam and Dean are fictional characters!" Chuck yelled. "I made them up! They're not real!"  
  
"Oh really?" Dean said, grabbing Chuck by the arm and dragging him out to the Impala, ignoring Chuck's protests as he opened the car's trunk to display their arsenal. "How's _that_ for real?"  
  
"Are those real guns?" the writer asked apprehensively.  
  
"Yep," Dean said, indicating the relevant bags. "This is real rock salt, these are real fake IDs."  
  
"Well," Chuck said, clearly growing more nervous as he laughed anxiously. "I got to hand it to you guys; you really are my number one fans… That's-that's awesome. So, I-I think I've got some posters in the house-"  
  
"Chuck, stop!" Dean said.  
  
" _Dean_ ," Deanna said, walking over from the corner where she'd been watching events unfold, rolling her eyes in frustration at her grandson as Bela walked up after her. "You're not getting anywhere by scaring this poor man."  
  
"Who…?" Chuck said, looking at her in confusion.  
  
"Oh, I'm Deanna Campbell," Deanna said, smiling politely at Chuck. "And this is Bela."  
  
"Deanna…?" Chuck repeated, his eyes widening in shock before he looked over at Sam and Dean. "She's your grandmother?"  
  
"How do you know that?" Dean asked.  
  
"Do you know about the angels?" Sam interjected, suddenly looking at Chuck with new curiosity. "Or Lilith breaking the seals?"  
  
" _You_ know about that?" Chuck said, fear forgotten in the face of his new confusion.  
  
"The question is how do you," Dean said.  
  
"Because I wrote it?" Chuck said uncertainly.  
  
"You kept writing?" Bela asked.  
  
"Yeah, even after the publisher went bankrupt, but those books never came out…" Chuck explained, looking between the four in confusion, before he chuckled as he seemed to regain his confidence. "Okay, wait a minute. This is some kind of joke, right? Did that- Did Phil put you up to this?"  
  
"Well, nice to meet you," Dean said. "I'm Dean Winchester, and this is my brother Sam."  
  
"The last names were never in the books," Chuck said, his confidence lost. "I never told anybody about that. I never even wrote that down."  
  
"Oh, _that_ convinces you?" Bela said, just before Chuck staggered backwards and seemed about to fall over before Deanna grabbed him.  
  
"I think we should take this inside," she said, briefly glaring at her grandsons before looking more sympathetically at the shaken young man in her arms.  
  
"Yeah…" Chuck said, patting her hand reassuringly as she led him back to his house. "Yeah, that'd… that'd be great…"  
  
Stuck for anything else to do, Dean, Sam and Bela exchanged glances before they followed Chuck and Deanna into the house; as the older woman had said, there wasn't much else that they could do right now.


	33. Trying to Break the Prophecy

"OK," Chuck said, after taking a couple of glasses of whiskey as the four hunters waited for him to collect himself. "You're still here, you're not hallucinations… so I'm a god."

"You're a… god?" Bela repeated sceptically, looking over the dischelved man in surprise. "That's a bit of a high opinion to have, isn't it?"

"I write things and they come to life; what else would you call me?" Chuck asked, staring at them in a bemused manner. "Yeah, I'm definitely a god; a cruel, cruel, capricious god. The things I put you through… the physical beatings alone-"

"Yeah, we're still in one piece," Dean pointed out.

"I killed your father," Chuck continued. "I burned your mother alive… and then you had to go through the whole horrific deal again with Jessica."

"Chuck-" Sam began.

"All for the sake of literary symmetry?" Chuck continued, before he looked over at Bela. "And God… what I did to _you_ …"

"Don't go there," Bela said firmly.

"But I mean… _God_ …" Chuck said, shaking as though he was having some kind of fit before he looked over at Deanna. "And then I dragged you all the way out of time after you lost your family…"

"Considering that I would be dead if I'd stayed in the past and I've still got my grandsons, I think I can accept that," Deanna smiled reassuringly at him. "Maybe we can focus on how you did this, since I'm fairly sure you didn't _create_ us…"

"Did you two really have to live through the bugs?" Chuck asked, looking over at the brothers, clearly ignoring Deanna's attempt to make him feel better.

"Yeah," Dean said, leaving the two women wondering what that was referring to.

"What about the ghost ship?"

"Oh, we definitely dealt with that," Bela said, exchanging grim glances with the brothers.

"I am so sorry," Chuck said; to his credit, he at least sounded like he regretted his perceived responsibility. "I mean, horror is one thing, but to be forced to live bad writing... if I would have known it was real, I would have done another pass."

"Chuck, you're not a god!" Dean protested.

"But you _could_ be a psychic," Deanna added reflectively

"No," Chuck said, shaking his head firmly. "If I were psychic, you think I'd be writing? Writing is hard."

"Well, maybe you're a psychic who's just… focused on their lives?" Bela asked.

"Yeah, like laser-focused," Dean confirmed. "Are you working on anything right now?"

"Holy crap," Chuck said, eyes widening as he looked up from his laptop screen.

"What?" Sam asked, as Chuck turned around to pick up a pile of pages from his table.

"The, uh, latest book?" the author said, studying his pages uncertainly. "It's, uh, it's kind of weird."

"You were writing about this, weren't you?" Bela said, looking at the writer with a thoughtful stare.

"Yeah…" Chuck said, nodding awkwardly. "It's, uh, 'Kilgore Trout' Vonnegut weird; I was writing about myself meeting my characters…"

* * *

Stuck for anything better to do, the Winchesters, Bela and Deanna took Chuck's latest manuscript to go over it in their own time, with Deanna claiming it on the grounds that she was the best person qualified to deal with whatever she might find if the future contained something unpleasant. Sam and Dean went to the laundromat to do their latest load of washing while Deanna and Bela read over the material in their motel room, but hadn't turned up anything more interesting than a detailed description of the Winchesters' activities in the laundromat.  
  
Before they could consider what to do next, they'd received a sudden phone call from Chuck that asked them all to head back to his house, the urgency in his tone so serious that none of the hunters had questioned it.  
  
"So…" Sam asked, as they saw Chuck pacing in his living room with a few pages in his hands. "You wrote another chapter?"  
  
"This was all so much easier before you were real," Chuck said uncomfortably.  
  
"We can take it; just spit it out," Dean said.  
  
"You especially are not going to like this," Chuck said, before he glanced over at Deanna. "Oh, and you probably won't either; I'm just… I know your grandsons better…"  
  
"We didn't like Hell; we can deal with it," Bela said firmly. "What is it?"  
  
"It's Lilith," Chuck explained. "She's coming for Sam."  
  
"Coming to kill him?" Dean asked.  
  
"When?" Deanna asked urgently.  
  
"Tonight."  
  
"She's just gonna show up?" Dean asked incredulously. "Here?"  
  
"Uh… let's see, uh…" Chuck said, sitting down and putting his glasses on as he began to read the manuscript. "'Lilith patted the bed seductively. Unable to deny his desire, Sam succumbed, and they sank into the throes of fiery demonic passion'."  
  
"…What?" Bela said, looking at the writer incredulously.  
  
She could understand that story she'd heard; she just couldn't believe it.  
  
Sam sleeping with Ruby when Dean was dead and she was trying to help him was one thing; the concept of him having sex with their _enemy_ …?  
  
"You're kidding me, right?" Sam said, actually laughing at that extract.  
  
"You think this is funny?" Dean asked bitterly.  
  
"You don't?" Sam countered. "I mean, come on; 'fiery demonic passion'?"  
  
"It's just a first draft…" Chuck said awkwardly.  
  
"Like your style changes the _facts_?" Bela said. "You saw Sam having _sex_ with _Lilith_?"  
  
"Wait, wait, wait, wait; Lilith is a little girl!" Dean protested.  
  
"No," Chuck corrected, glancing back at his papers. "This time she's a 'comely dental hygienist from Bloomington, Indiana',"  
  
"Great, perfect," Dean said, deciding to ignore the fact that Sam apparently wasn't going to become a pervert in favour of focusing on the central issue. "So what happens after the... 'fiery demonic' whatever?"  
  
"I don't know; it hasn't come to me yet," Chuck clarified.  
  
"And we have no way of knowing what we can do about it…" Bela said grimly.  
  
"Look, there's nothing to worry about," Sam said as he looked around at the others. "Lilith and _me_? In bed?"  
  
"How does this whole psychic thing of yours work?" Dean asked, glaring at Sam even as he addressed Chuck.  
  
"You mean my process?" Chuck asked.  
  
"Yes, your 'process'," Dean said sceptically.  
  
"Well, it usually starts with a headache," Chuck said, rubbing his forehead. "A really bad headache. Aspirin is useless, so… I drink. Until I fall asleep. The first time it happened, I thought it was just a crazy dream."  
  
"The first time you dreamt about us?"  
  
"It flowed," Chuck confirmed. "It just, it kept flowing. It still does. I-I can't stop it, really."  
  
"You can't seriously believe-" Sam began.  
  
"We have to work with what we've got," Bela said, before turning to look at Chuck. "Can we just-?"  
  
"Read these for ideas?" Chuck finished, handing over the manuscript to the former thief. "Here you go."  
  
Stuck for anything else that they could do, the four hunters took the offered pages and left the building, Bela already scanning through the paperwork as quickly as possible while Dean and Deanna looked apprehensively at their brother and grandson respectively.  
  
They had no idea what was about to happen, but considering that Chuck had always been accurate when he didn't know they were real, there was no reason to believe that whatever gave him his 'visions' was going to stop working just because they knew about them now.

* * *

Unfortunately, despite Dean's best efforts to defy the 'fate' Chuck had predicted in his writing, it seemed as though every attempt they made to get out of predicted encounter with Lilith went wrong. Sam had expressed scepticism at an extract that described him as having pink Band-Aids on his face after an accident, arguing that Dean would never let himself be in that kind of position, but Dean preferred to try and get out of the town as quickly as possible before Lilith managed to corner them. Even with Bela's new anti-angel blade and Ruby's old demon-killing knife, Dean had felt certain that they weren't ready for this kind of confrontation, and when Deanna had agreed with his plan, it had been decided that they should try and avoid the end result of Chuck's 'prophecy' even if the details seemed ridiculous.  
  
Regardless of Dean's intentions, their attempt to get out quickly went wrong when they discovered that there was no way out of the town due to recent damage to the only bridge that led back to the highway. Confined to the town for the night, Dean had attempted to change what was featured in the book by acting against the predictions, such as Dean ordering a vegetarian burger rather than the bacon cheeseburger in the manuscript while the girls ordered a drink, but that plan soon went wrong when the restaurant staff brought him the wrong burger by mistake, and Deanna and Bela's order was delayed for so long that they soon decided not to bother waiting. Stuck for anything else they could do to get around it, Dean tried checking them into a particularly sleazy-looking motel known as the Toreador Motel, in an attempt to defy the manuscript's prediction that Sam and Lilith would meet at the Red Motel, but it was clear that he was starting to struggle for options as he set up various anti-demon measures.  
  
"So I'm just supposed to hole up here all night?" Sam asked sceptically, as Dean set up various hex-bags around the room.  
  
"Exactly," Dean said firmly. "Avoid research at all costs- which reminds me…"  
  
"Seriously?" Sam said, looking incredulously at his brother as Dean removed Sam's laptop from his bag.  
  
"So long as you're not doing what that chapter predicted, I don't care _what_ you do right now," Dean said firmly. "Right now, I gotta go park Baby somewhere secure rather than go riding; girls, just… do whatever."  
  
As Dean left the room, Deanna rolled her eyes in amused indulgence at her grandson's attitude before she looked over at Sam.  
  
"Well," she said after a moment's thought, "despite his awkward methods, Dean's right about one thing; if we're going to break that prophecy, your best chance is to stay here and _not_ do anything Chuck predicted you'd do."  
  
"Just so long as you're not going to suggest porn as an alternative," Sam said, allowing himself a slight chuckle.  
  
"I know I don't look it, but I _am_ still your grandmother, Sam," Deanna noted, smiling at him indulgently before she shrugged and sat down. "Anyway, should we-?"  
  
"Just… leave me alone," Sam said, sighing as he sat on the bed, staring at the wall in frustration.  
  
"Sam-" Bela began.  
  
"Of course," Deanna cut in before Bela could finish, taking the younger woman by the arm and leading her out of the motel room before she could say anything else. "We'll be back later; call if you need anything."  
  
"What are you-?" Bela tried to protest as Deanna led her out of the room and closed the door behind her.  
  
"I saw Samuel act like that more than once when we were married; believe me, some things transcend nurture," Deanna said firmly. "When one of the men in the family look like that, you'd have better luck talking down a transformed werewolf than you'd have getting them to open up."  
  
"But-" Bela began.  
  
"Believe me, if this was Dean we were dealing with, I'd let you take a crack at getting through to him, but unless you've not been telling me something, I don't think you have that kind of connection to Sam," Deanna said, looking at Bela with a slightly teasing grin.  
  
"Oh," Bela said, suddenly feeling particularly awkward as Deanna led her to their car. "You… noticed that?"  
  
"What kind of grandmother would I be if I didn't see that?" Deanna smiled, before her amused grin faltered. "Granted, I didn't expect to find you and Dean doing that this suddenly, but considering everything you've been through… well, we all find our own happiness."  
  
"But… after everything I did to them…" Bela said, not even sure why she was protesting Deanna's acceptance of her uncertain relationship with Dean.  
  
"Like I told you before, Bela, what matters is that you're not like that any more," Deanna explained reassuringly, even as the two of them got back into Deanna's car. "If Dean's forgiven you for what happened… well, I'm not going to criticise my grandson if he has a chance at happiness."  
  
With that said, Deanna paused for a moment as she set the car into motion and drove off. "Of course, if we're going to ensure that, we need to work out what Lilith's after by coming here and what the deal is with Chuck's visions…"

* * *

As the two women drove around the town, they spent most of the trip contemplating possible explanations for Chuck's strange insight into the Winchesters' lives, but none of their possible solutions ever felt quite right. The idea of Chuck as a god was dismissed quickly enough as they had never met a god who was unaware of his abilities, but the idea of him as a psychic didn't fit as there was no explanation for his 'focus' on the Winchesters, and there was no sign that anything else could benefit from whatever information Chuck was writing about them. They'd called Bobby to see if he had any more ideas, but after he'd agreed with their reasons for dismissing their own initial theories, all he'd been able to do was promise to look into the matter and get back to them later.  
  
Eventually, after their best efforts had failed to come up with any kind of suitable answer to their questions, the two women had decided to return to the writer's house to see if a direct confrontation would get them anywhere without the Winchesters present. Unfortunately, that plan was unintentionally thwarted before they could even start when they found the Impala parked around the corner from the house, getting out of the car just as Dean did the same.  
  
"Dean?" Bela asked, looking at the Impala's shattered rear window and Dean's bruised face. "What happened?"  
  
"Latest prediction came true," Dean said grimly. "Some vandals broke the rear window, I got hit by a minivan trying to stop 'em, the woman driving the van had star-shaped earrings, and her daughter stuck pink Band-Aids on my face as part of her 'doctor phase'."  
  
"Ah," Bela said, nodding in understanding as she recalled all the appropriate passages from Chuck's last manuscript. "That's… disturbingly accurate."  
  
"Quite," Dean said, his tone grim as he looked back at Chuck's door. "Which is why I'm goin' to get to the bottom of this."  
  
With that said, Dean practically stormed towards the door, leaving the two women with  
  
After knocking at the door resulted in no response, Deanna and Bela were just starting to consider the merits of trying to convince Dean to come back later when Chuck appeared on the sidewalk, holding a bottle in a brown bag and a six-pack of beer.  
  
"Dean," Chuck said, looking at the hunter with a lack of surprise.  
  
"Take it you knew we'd be here?" Dean said.  
  
"You look terrible," Chuck said, as he opened his door to let the three inside; he didn't explicitly say so, but the lack of surprise confirmed that Dean's guess was correct.  
  
"That's 'cause I just got hit by a minivan, Chuck."  
  
"Oh," the author said, even as he waved Dean, Deanna and Bela into the main living area.  
  
"That's it?" Dean said indignantly, as the women moved to either side of the room to prepare for whatever might be about to happen. "Every damn thing you write about me comes true; that's all you have to say is 'oh'?!"  
  
"Please don't yell at me," Chuck said, moving to put down his beer.  
  
"Why do I get the feeling there's something that you're not telling us?" Dean said.  
  
"What wouldn't I be telling you?"  
  
"How you know what you know, for starters!"  
  
"I don't know how I know, I just do!" Chuck protested  
  
"Dean-" Deanna began, reaching out to try and place a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"That's not good enough," Dean protested, dodging his grandmother's grasp as he grabbed Chuck to slam him against the wall. "How the hell are you doing this?"  
  
"Dean!" a familiar voice said from behind the group of four. "Let him go!"  
  
"Castiel?" Bela said, turning to look at the angel in surprise, their old ally standing in a corner of Chuck's room.  
  
"This man is to be protected," Castiel said, still staring resolutely at the male hunter. "He is a Prophet of the Lord."


	34. Chuck VS Lillith

"A _Prophet_?" Bela repeated incredulously, even as Dean released his grip on the writer. "He's a _Prophet_?"

"Ca… Castiel?" Chuck said, looking at the angel in bemusement.

"It's an honour to meet you, Chuck," Castiel said, ignoring Bela's query as he looked awkwardly around the room. "I… admire your work."

"Hold on a minute there; this guy's a _prophet_?" Dean said, as Castiel picked up one of the _Supernatural_ books from a table. "Come on, he- he's basically a Penthouse Forum writer!"

"Your lives are a bit more engaging than that-" Deanna began.

"Not when _he's_ writing them!" Dean protested, before he turned to glare at Chuck. "Did you know about this?"

"I, uh, I might have dreamt about it," Chuck said, stumbling into his armchair to pour a fresh glass of whiskey from a nearby cupboard.

"And you didn't tell us?"

"It was too preposterous," Chuck said defensively. "Not to mention arrogant. I mean, writing, yourself into the story is one thing, but as a prophet? That's like M. Night-level douchiness."

"This is the guy who decides our fate?" Dean asked, glaring back at the angel.

"He isn't deciding anything," Castiel corrected as he studied the book. "He's a mouthpiece; a conduit for the inspired word."

"A conduit?" Bela repeated uncertainly. "How does that work? I mean, I read something about prophets once but… well, it said that there haven't _been_ any since John wrote the last Gospel…"

"Prophets are only summoned at a time of great need," Castiel explained. "Their gifts vary depending on the circumstances that triggered them; some see the future, others provide insight into the past and a few are chosen to read the Word of God."

"And this guy's _gift_ is being able to see my life?" Dean asked sceptically.

"He is aware of the Word of God in the same manner as the original scribes of the New Testament," Castiel said solemnly. "One day, these books will be known as the Winchester Gospels."

"You've got to be kidding me," Dean, Chuck and Bela said simultaneously, prompting a brief chuckle from Deanna at the unintentional stereo effect.

"I am not… kidding you," the angel confirmed.

"If you'd all please excuse me one minute…" Chuck said, standing up and hurrying away up the stairs, the bottle still clutched in his hand.

"Him?" Dean said, looking sceptically at Castiel as the apparent prophet vanished from the room. "Really?"

"You should've seen Luke," Castiel noted.

"Luke?" Bela repeated sceptically. "What was his problem?"

"OK, enough of the historical queries; why'd _he_ get tapped?" Dean asked.

"I don't know how prophets are chosen," Castiel said. "The order comes from high up on the celestial chain of command."

"How high?" Deanna asked.

"Very," Castiel said grimly.

"Whatever," Dean said, clearly uninterested in discussing the heavenly hierarchy at this time. "How do we get around this?"

"Around what?" Castiel asked.

"The Sam-Lilith love connection," Dean clarified. "How do we stop it from happening?"

"What the prophet has written can't be unwritten," Castiel said solemnly. "As he has seen it, so it shall come to pass."

"Yeah?" Dean said, staring bluntly at the angel. "Well, screw that; I saved my grandmother from her death, so I can damn well save-"

"It is not that simple, Dean," Castiel said, looking solemnly at the elder Winchester brother. "The events that led to your mother losing her family could allow some leeway, so long as the end result was for Mary Campbell to be left feeling that she had nothing more to rely on than Azazel's deal, but I cannot interfere with the predictions of a prophet; they are protected."

"Protected?" Deanna repeated curiously, before looking over at Bela. "You've heard about prophets; did it say anything about them being protected?"

"Well, there were some references to them having a guardian angel…" Bela said uncertainly.

"Archangel," Castiel corrected the ex-thief.

"Archangel?" Deanna asked. "As in… like Uriel?"

"No; your scribes merely misinterpreted Uriel to be an archangel based on his role in the teaching of the prophet Ezra and his rescue of John the Baptist," Castiel explained. "There are only four true archangels in Heaven, the first of the angels to exist and the most powerful of us all."

"Ah," Dean said, looking pointedly at Castiel. "And, lemme guess, Lucifer's one of 'em?"

"Correct," Castiel confirmed. "Of the other three, Gabriel is presumed dead- he vanished centuries ago and nobody has seen him since- and Michael and Raphael have taken little action in recent times; they are willing to delegate matters to other angels, such as Zachariah, my own immediate superior."

"Right…" Deanna said, nodding thoughtfully for a moment at this news before she looked back at the angel. "So… you're saying that Michael or Raphael is responsible for… keeping an eye on Chuck?"

"Only in a very loose sense," Castiel explained. "Our awareness is greatly increased when we are not confined to vessels, and each archangel has a great deal of demands on their time; they would take action if Chuck was in clear danger from a demon or some other force that he would be unable to overcome himself, and would most likely heal him if he was injured in a manner that may compromise his ability to act before his time as a prophet has concluded, but they do not keep constant track of his activities."

"So… they don't know we know about him?" Bela asked.

"They are most likely aware by now, but they will do nothing to interfere unless he is facing almost certain death," Castiel said.

"Hold on…" Dean said, looking thoughtfully at the angel. "You're saying the archangel steps in if the prophet's in danger?"

"Yes."

"So… if the prophet was in the same room as a demon…"

"Then all the powers of Heaven would rain down upon that demon," Castiel confirmed solemnly.

"Right…" Dean said, nodding thoughtfully before he looked over at the two women. "You two just… keep an eye on Chuck; I'm gonna go get Sam."

The two women didn't even have the chance to ask Dean what he was doing before the hunter was out of the house and getting back into the Impala, driving away before Bela could do more than step outside the house.

* * *

Stuck for anything better to do, Bela and Deanna decided to just discreetly step outside the house, allowing them to both wait for Dean to get back and give Chuck some space to think about his recent discovery. Moving the car around the corner from Chuck's house, they spent the next hour or discussing a variety of topics, ranging from what Bela knew about prophets to Deanna's own research on archangels, until Dean finally returned with a grim expression on his face.  
  
"What happened?" Deanna asked, getting out of the car to look anxiously at her eldest grandson as he exited the Impala. "Where's Sam?"  
  
"Planning to try and take Lilith on when she comes to get him; he's already burned all the hex bags I left in the room and talked about how this could be our best chance of putting her down if she shows up when we know she's coming, and wouldn't answer any of my questions about how he's doing his psychic crap and managed to use it to stop Alastair," Dean said firmly. "I gave him a chance to leave on his own, but if we can't just drag him out, and Cas can't or won't defy the prophecy himself, we're going to have to go with the back-up plan."  
  
"Which is?" Deanna asked, before she glanced back at Chuck's house and realised what her grandson was thinking of. "You can't be serious."  
  
"If you've got a better call, I'd like to hear it," Dean said firmly. "You heard what Cas said-"  
  
"And your plan is to threaten a prophet guarded by an archangel to get him to go to the location where the first demon is going to be waiting?" Bela said, looking at him incredulously. "I don't know if that's brilliant or stupid…"  
  
"Well, we're stuck for ideas now," Dean said grimly. "Let's get down to business."  
  
With that said, he turned around and walked firmly into Chuck's house, leaving the two women with nothing else to do but follow him as he confronted the confused writer, who was currently slumped in his sofa with a blanket and another whiskey.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Chuck said, looking blearily up at Dean as though he'd been about to fall asleep. "I didn't write this-"  
  
"Come on," Dean said, unconcerned about Chuck's state as he hauled the writer to his feet. "I need you to come with me."  
  
"What?" Chuck said. "Where?"  
  
"To the motel where Sam is," Dean said.  
  
"That's where Lilith is," Chuck said apprehensively.  
  
"Yeah, exactly," Dean said. "We need you to stop her."  
  
"Are you insane?" Chuck said, yanking his arm away from Dean. "Lilith? I know what she's capable of, Dean; I _wrote_ her."  
  
"Chuck," Bela said, looking grimly at the writer, "firstly, you did not _create_ Lilith, you just saw what she was going to do in the future… and secondly, we actually have a plan; you have a literal guardian archangel, so all you need to do is show up and Lilith has to leave or die."  
  
"What?" Chuck said in confusion. "But I-I haven't seen that yet; th-the story-"  
  
"You're our best shot at saving my grandson, Chuck," Deanna said, looking grimly at the writer. "You _have_ to help us."  
  
"But… I'm just a writer," Chuck said weakly.  
  
"This isn't a story any more, man; this is real, and you're in it," Dean glared at him. "Now, I need you to get off your ass and fight. Come on, Chuck."  
  
"No friggin' way," Chuck said, after a moment's pause.  
  
"OK, well, then, how about this," Dean said resolutely. "I've got a gun in my pocket, and if you don't come with me, I'll blow your brains out."  
  
"I thought you said I was protected by an archangel," Chuck asked.  
  
"This man faced Hell to save his brother; after that, facing Heaven is just the next logical step," Bela noted with a brief smile.  
  
"Besides, could be an interesting exercise," Dean noted with a smile. "After all, me versus an archangel; have to wonder who the quicker draw is…"  
  
Chuck looked anxiously at Dean for a moment before he swallowed and nodded.  
  
"Well…" he said with a shrug. "If I'm going to keep writing about you, maybe I should get a little first-hand experience…"

* * *

After all their panic about the possibility of facing Lilith, Bela wasn't sure if she should consider the final confrontation anti-climatic or not. When they'd reached Sam's hotel room, they'd found him pinned underneath an attractive blonde in a tight black sleeveless top, but once Chuck had stepped forward to face her, the windows around them had begun to glow with a brilliant white light, resulting in a burst of black smoke from the woman before she fell to the ground.  
  
With the demon dealt with for the moment, the four hunters had decided to leave the town before Hell either sent additional forces after them or Heaven decided to investigate their contact with the prophet. The bridge had been cleared by the time they reached the exit, leaving the four of them free to make the best possible time as they fled from the town that had changed so much of their perceptions of themselves.  
  
Sam had reported that Lilith had offered to stand down from her attempt to break the Seals if he agreed to her terms, claiming that she was going to die if things continued, so long as Sam and Dean sacrificed themselves in return, but Sam assured them that he'd been planning to turn the offer down even before they arrived, noting that he couldn't trust Lilith to uphold any deal they might make with her.  
  
A couple of hours outside of Chuck's home town, when the cars had paused outside of a suitable filling-station and Deanna and Sam had gone in to buy some supplies before they parted ways, Dean and Bela found themselves leaning against the Impala, staring thoughtfully up at the sky.  
  
"So," Bela said, looking at Dean with a smile, "how does it feel to have fans?"  
  
"They're not fans of _me_ , they're fans of-"  
  
"You," Bela said firmly. "Chuck's writing style might have problems, but I read those books featuring me; from what I remember, you were portrayed accurately enough, so there's no reason to believe that things were different in the other books. Some people may have a weird idea of who and what you are- particularly when it comes to your relationship with your brother- but they all like who you are in the end."  
  
"Which is?"  
  
"The man who risks his life to save people," Bela said firmly. "Everything you do is about saving people; maybe you make some impulsive decisions, and maybe you make a few mistakes, but you've always focused on saving lives, not killing things."  
  
Despite their complicated earlier history, Dean smiled gratefully at the woman.  
  
"You've really changed since you came back, haven't you?" he said with a grin. "I mean, you were accusing me of being a few steps from a serial killer just last year…"  
  
"Being saved from Hell by an angel will do that for you," Bela said, leaning over to give Dean a brief kiss before pulling back to glare firmly at him. "Just to be clear, while we're talking about Chuck's work, if you _ever_ suggest that Sam gets involved in what we do together-"  
  
"Feel free to knock me out and get me checked for any kind of hex," Dean confirmed. "I've got nothing against using that as a cover or a joke so long as we don't have to push it, but I'm strictly het only when it counts."  
  
"Good to know," Bela said, giving him a brief grin before she pulled him towards her for another tender kiss.


	35. The Third Brother

It might have been risking ruining their hard-earned peace given her usual luck, but right now, Bela actually felt rather good about life. They'd made some not-inconsiderable progress in saving a few Seals, her new 'career' with Deanna was going well- the two had just successfully 'recovered' an ancient dagger from a collector that was said to contain an ancient demonic spirit- and she was just about to settle down for a night's rest in her current hotel room while Deanna took their new acquisition back to the Campbell compound when her phone suddenly rang.

"Hello?" she said, after a quick glance at the displayed number confirmed that it was Dean.

" _I need you to run a background check on some kind named Adam Milligan_ ," Dean said briskly. " _He lives in Windom, Minnesota; Sam's doing a check himself, but if he's a trap they might not be expecting you to take a look_ -"

"Who is he?" Bela interrupted; she and Dean might be… involved now, but that didn't give him the right to just ask her to do his work for him-

" _He says he's John Winchester's son_."

Bela blinked.

"You have another brother?" she said in surprise.

" _We_ don't," Dean said firmly. " _I just need you to confirm that as well_."

It was the barely-contained edge in his voice that convinced Bela to go along with the request; whether or not this 'Adam' person was actually Dean's brother, or if he was just someone who was making this claim for some as-yet-unknown reason, the sooner Dean knew the truth the better it would be for everyone.

"Give me a couple of hours and I'll be on my way," Bela replied. "Where should I meet you?"

" _Windom_ ," Dean said grimly. " _I'll get back to you once I know more_."

As Dean hung up, Bela was already getting out her laptop in preparation for her new 'assignment'; of something could get Dean Winchester this hostile in what sounded like relatively short notice, the sooner she could get to him with definite information the better…

* * *

It had taken her longer to conduct this kind of research than she would have normally spent on anything that wasn't explicitly case-related, but considering the circumstances, Bela had felt that Dean would appreciate that extra level of attention to detail; she'd even called in some of her old contacts to do additional research while she was driving.  
  
However, in the end, she hadn't managed to find anything to suggest that Adam Milligan was anything other than what he appeared to be; the son of nurse Kate Milligan, father listed as 'unknown' on the birth certificate, Eagle Scout, honour graduate of his local high school, and current pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin.  
  
Bela knew that Dean would probably still want to check that the boy wasn't a demon or shapeshifter of some sort who was just using Adam's identity as part of some larger plot, but that was all the kind of thing that he had probably done already; her role was just to confirm that Adam's background checked out, and as far as she could tell, everything added up. She'd thought briefly about just leaving the Winchesters alone and sending Dean her results by text or e-mail, but considering the state Dean had been in when he called, she'd decided to go with her more human instincts and actually deliver the results in person. Based on the address listed for Adam's mother in his files, it had been child's play to find his address, even if her theory was only confirmed when her knock on the door was answered by Sam.  
  
"Bela?" Sam said, staring at her in surprise. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"Dean called; he asked me to run a background check on Adam Milligan…" Bela began, before she looked around the room and saw a young man she didn't recognise sitting on the bed. "Who I'd guess is you?"  
  
"That's me," Adam said, looking at the new arrival with a slightly bemused grin. "So… are you my sister?"  
  
"Oh God, no," Bela and Sam said simultaneously.  
  
"I mean, I'm… well, I'm _with_ Dean-" Bela began.  
  
"And she's working with our grandmother, but that's something else," Sam continued.  
  
"Grandmother?" Adam asked eagerly.  
  
" _Their_ grandmother," Bela corrected, looking apologetically at the kid as she guessed what he was thinking. "She was their mother's mother; no relation to you."  
  
"Ah," Adam said, his smile faltering before he looked at her with new curiosity. "So… how did you meet Dean and Sam?"  
  
"Bela… works in antiquities research," Dean interjected, as he came down the stairs, nodding briefly at her before he turned to Adam. "She used to be a freelancer, but she ran into us when it turned out Dad owned something one of her clients was after, one thing led to another, and the other thing led to her signing up with Grandma to do a more professional job."  
  
"Ah," Adam said, looking at her in uncertain understanding. "Well… nice to meet you."  
  
"Same," Bela said, nodding at him before she turned to look at Dean. "Can we talk?"  
  
Nodding in understanding, Dean followed her out of the room, leaving Sam with the young man as she closed the door behind them.  
  
"So," she said, looking curiously at her… she hated to use a childish term like 'boyfriend', but it was the best fit for this situation, "what's going on here?"  
  
"About what I told you on the phone," Dean replied. "Tested the kid with silver and holy water and nothing happened, there's photos of Dad here with him that don't look like they've been faked, so we're… well, 'til further notice, we're assuming the story's true and Adam's human."  
  
"And the reason he called you here is?"  
  
"We're thinkin' it might have something to do with the case Dad was working on when he came here the first time," Dean explained. "The kid's mom's been missing for three days, so he called Dad for help after driving back from college, and the only clue we've got for what might have done it is that Dad was dealing with a bunch of grave robberies when he came here the first time…"  
  
"Are you all right?" Bela asked, as Dean trailed off while glaring at the house in frustration.  
  
"What do you think?" Dean practically spat as he looked back at her, as though the question had been a cue for him to vent at last. "I spent years doing _everything_ Dad wanted while trying to be a great hunter and look after Sammy, and he's got this whole… secret life that I never knew a thing about!"  
  
"Are you mad that he didn't tell you about Adam, or mad that he did all this with Adam instead of you?" Bela asked, unable to stop herself smiling slightly at Dean's frustration.  
  
"Both!" Dean yelled, before he sighed and sank back against the wall. "I dunno… just seems like this guy got everything from Dad I never did… baseball games, a birthday where Dad gave him his first beer…"  
  
Looking at Dean as he sat on the ground, Bela couldn't even smile as she sat down beside the hunter who was coming to mean so much to her, placing an awkward but comforting hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Dean," she said, not believing that she was about to say this but feeling that it had to be said, "maybe your father kept some things from you… but at least he always tried to be there for you."  
  
She didn't say any more, but the shameful expression on Dean's face as he looked back at her confirmed that he'd understood her meaning; after the crap she'd endured from her own father as a child, it was almost ridiculous for him to complain about his father wanting a secret life outside of hunting.  
  
"Well," Dean said at last, shrugging slightly as he looked at her, "I've still got a missing bartender/ex-cop to check out; I'd ask you to come, but…"  
  
"He'd be more inclined to tell a possibly crazy story to one person rather than two; understood," Bela nodded in understanding. "I'll look over what you and Sam have found so far and see if anything comes to me, shall I?"  
  
"Good a use of your time as anything, with this crap…" Dean said, before he groaned in frustration. "Ah, crap- you know I didn't-"  
  
"I know," Bela smiled in understanding.  
  
This case was going to be awkwardly personal for Dean no matter how it turned out in the end, but Bela liked to think that she'd grown enough as a person not to take it personally if her… if Dean said something stupid (She wasn't comfortable calling him her 'boyfriend' as it sounded so childish, but at the same time they were definitely more than friends).

* * *

With Dean and Sam already established as being in town to help Adam, after getting a room at a different motel, Bela had decided to adopt the brothers' methods as opposed to her own and take a closer look at some of the old files on John's original case in this town. Posing as an FBI agent wasn't her usual preference for a cover ID, but she felt that she'd picked up enough over the years to bluff her way through most possibilities. Presenting herself as investigating a potential copycat of the original crimes, Bela was soon able to gain access to the paperwork to both the original case and a few recent disappearances, with a check over the files enough to develop her theory.  
  
As far as hunting clues went, grave-robbing wasn't always a sign of the supernatural, but in this modern world, with cadavers readily available to all medical schools and cremation becoming a more 'popular' option, there was little real point in anyone trying to take bodies after funerals for scientific reasons, so hunters took care to check them out just in case. Based on the crime scene photos of the original robberies, there was no sign that anything had broken _out_ of the coffins, which meant that somebody had been after the bodies for some other reason, even if Bela couldn't be sure what that was. Sam had run a search for any additional newspaper articles around the time of John Winchester's first visit, and there was no sign of any additional deaths around that time, which at least suggested that they weren't dealing with someone trying to raise a zombie army or something like that.  
  
Unfortunately, with the article on the conclusion of the case only stating that the bodies had been found without providing any specifics about their condition, it didn't explain what they were really dealing with or why their enemy had captured Adam's mother. Without any more details available, there were too many possibilities for Bela to feel comfortable narrowing it down, particularly when creatures were one of her weaker areas in terms of supernatural knowledge.  
  
It was only when Bela walked back into the Winchesters' current motel room to find Adam glaring at the Winchesters that she realised something else had changed while she was away.  
  
"He knows?" she looked over at Dean.  
  
"We found a bloody vent under his mom's bed and told him to let the cops know after we'd left," Dean explained. "Kinda hard _not_ to talk about the family business after that."  
  
"And how about you?" Adam asked, looking at Bela with a scathing glare. "Are you really in 'antiquities'?"  
  
"Yes and no," Bela replied, deciding that she might as well be honest now that she was here. "I do work with the supernatural like these two, but I primarily deal with cursed objects of some form or another; I actually met these two when I was trying to get… something… from one of your father's archives."  
  
"'Something'?" Adam repeated.  
  
"Not important right now," Dean said, looking firmly at the younger man before he looked at Bela. "So, what've we got on the case files you said you were checking out?"  
  
"Should we-?"  
  
"I know about the grave robberies," Adam interjected firmly. "And I'm not a child."  
  
"Well, in that case… not much," Bela sighed in frustration. "I'm fairly sure that whatever was behind this wasn't raising zombies, but there's just not enough information in the files to specify what they were doing instead. Parts were missing when the bodies were uncovered, but the files don't specify what condition the parts might have been in when removed, so we still don't have enough to narrow it down…"  
  
"It's more than we'd have," Dean said, smiling reassuringly at her before he paused for a moment's thought. "OK, Bela, we'll check out a couple of those tombs and see if anything crops up; Sam, stay here and keep an eye on the kid."  
  
"Hey-!" Sam began.  
  
"Dude, if this thing was tough enough to survive Dad, I'm not going after it on my own if I have a choice," Dean said, before he looked back at Bela. "And… well, no offence, but Sam's-"  
  
"Better at handling himself if these things try to attack _here_ while we're gone," Bela finished for Dean, nodding at him in understanding. "I get it, Dean; don't worry."  
  
Despite the knowledge of what they were about to do, a part of Bela had to teasingly wonder if this could be considered her and Dean's first actual 'date'?


	36. Milligan or Winchester?

A couple of hours later, Bela was grateful that she hadn't made the initial 'date' joke; if this was a date, it would have been a let-down by any definition. Their attempts to check out the tombs where the last missing bodies had been discovered had failed to turn up anything that might lead them to whatever they were hunting now, beyond the fact that their adversary had opened up the bodies and released some of the embalming fluid, which didn't do much to help them narrow down the 'suspect list'.

Talking of the supernatural, it was almost disturbing how easily Adam had accepted the idea that the supernatural was real, that his mother was dead, and that his brothers hunted it; from everything she'd heard about his reaction, he'd been almost too casual about it, particularly when the Winchesters were still arguing about what they should do with him. Dean didn't entirely agree with Sam's apparent plans to bring Adam into the hunting lifestyle, but Bela had to admit that she could see both sides of this particular argument; Dean was correct when he noted that John's actions made it clear that he hadn't wanted Adam involved in hunting, but at the same time, Sam had a good point when he argued that the issue wasn't going to go away just because they wanted Adam to stay out of it now that at least one creature knew about him.

Bela didn't think that supernatural monsters had some kind of 'network' where they all kept in touch with each other- demons aside, monsters always seemed to act in small groups rather than a larger 'family'- but after everything that John Winchester had done over the years, he'd certainly earned enough enemies that a known child of his wouldn't be safe unless they knew how to defend themselves.

Right now, however, with Dean following up on a lead on a sheriff who had apparently helped John deal with the public reaction to the feedings back in the day, that left Bela to wait in the hotel room as Sam give Adam a quick crash-course in the essentials of what he'd need to know if he had to defend himself. Attempting to maintain her neutrality on this issue, she was trying to do some additional research on the case in case something else occurred to her, but she couldn't help but keep an ear out on Sam and Adam as Adam received his latest lesson on disassembling weapons…

"Sam," Adam suddenly said, looking awkwardly at his brother, "how did Dad really die?"

"Demon," Sam said simply.

"You hunted it down?" Adam continued. "Got revenge?"

"Dean killed it," Sam confirmed.

"So it's over for you?" Adam asked.

"It's not over," Sam and Bela said simultaneously.

They were each spared from saying any more when the lights suddenly went out, something rattling outside the room. As Sam cocked his weapon, Bela quickly gathered up her files and reached into her shirt to pull Uriel's angel blade out of her jacket, shooting a warning glance at Adam to stay back as Sam moved towards the door. Opening the door, Sam glanced around outside before he raised his glance in realisation.

"It's in the vents," he said, as he looked back at his brother and Bela. "Go!"

As Sam fired at the vent, all three of them ran from the room to the lower level, Bela quickly heading to her car as Sam and Adam ran for Adam's truck. Bela was just about to start driving when she saw something pull Sam to the ground as the Impala pulled up, prompting her to get out of the car and run to help Dean as he ran to his brothers. As Dean and Adam pulled Sam to safety, Bela grabbed Sam's dropped shotgun, hit the ground, and fired at whatever was under the truck, prompting some kind of scream before the sounds under the car ceased. Glancing under the truck, Bela noticed a sewer grate with the lid at an angle over it, but there was no sign of anything moving under it; if something had been attacking them, it was clearly long gone now.

"Nothing there," she said as she stood back up and looked at Dean, anticipating his first question. "There's a sewer grate just under the truck; it must have used that to escape."

"Sh-should we go after it?" Adam asked.

"No way," Dean said firmly. "We'd never find it in that maze; thing's probably long gone by now."

"All right, so we don't know what it is, but we do know who it's after," Sam noted. "Joe Barton, Adam's mom-"

"And Adam," Dean said grimly.

"And since we're assuming Joe Barton helped your father crack this case last time, revenge seems like the best motive for all this, correct?" Bela suggested grimly.

"Which means that we're dealing with something that can think…" Dean groaned.

"It also means that we have a plan," Sam added, looking grimly over at the young man.

" _No_ ," Dean said, walking forward to stand firmly between Sam and Adam.

"Dean, we don't even know what this thing _is_ yet; we're never going to find it if we take away what it wants-" Sam began.

"And when did it become an option to use anyone as _bait_?" Dean countered, which at least saved Bela asking why Sam was suggesting what struck her as more Dean's kind of plan.

"Dean, I don't like it any more than you do, but we can't just dump Adam off at Bobby's or Grandma's and hope that he'll be safe once we find this thing," Sam pointed out. "We know that it's after him _now_ , so if we help Adam prepare for what's coming after him-"

"He could die, Sam!" Dean protested.

"We could all die, Dean," Bela noted, shooting him a particular stare to remind him of the fact that the two of them had already done that before she continued. "Even if we stop this thing, there are other things out there that would want revenge on you or John for what you've done in the past; now that whatever this thing is knows about Adam, how long will it take for something else to track him down?"

" _Hey_!" Adam said, glaring between the two older men. "In case you're forgetting, this is _my_ life and _my_ mother; if I can help take this thing down, show me what to do!"

When faced with Winchester stubbornness multiplied by three on three distinct perspectives, Bela found herself wondering if she was really ready for the commitment involved in her current relationship with Dean…

* * *

The following evening, Bela wondered if she should be grateful that Adam's training had gone well or concerned at how smoothly things were going. Adam might be a Winchester by blood, but he'd spent his life completely ignorant of his real background, and he was picking up on weapons like nobody's business…  
  
Of course, even if Adam was picking up the essential hunting skills, that still left her and the Winchesters with the issue of what they'd do with him once this was all over. In contrast to some of her earlier assumptions, Dean was all in favour of Adam staying out of the life while Sam was talking about how he'd never be able to have a normal life now that he knew about the demons and monsters out in the world and vice-versa.  
  
Still… even if she was trying to stay out of the debate, that didn't stop her from feeling at least slightly touched at the moment when Sam had looked at her while talking about 'family' as though he was deliberately trying to include her in that assessment, but that also didn't stop her from worrying about what this would do for the future. Introducing a new hunter to the life would always be a challenge, but bringing someone in when Adam was dealing with the loss of his family in every sense while they were also facing the Apocalypse itself, and she doubted if _anyone_ would be able to cope with it…  
  
Quite frankly, she was glad that Dean had avoided bringing her into the debate; she might be considered family by the Winchesters, but she still wasn't sure how she felt about this mess herself, never might getting anyone else involved. She could appreciate Dean's desire to give Adam a normal life and Sam's 'acceptance' that it was impossible- although she was less sure about Sam's speculation that Dean was 'jealous' of Adam having a normal life with John- but that didn't help her work out what side she should pick once this mess was all over…  
  
With Dean out chasing up another possible lead, and Sam keeping an eye on Adam, Bela had decided to take advantage of the opportunity to do some additional Apocalypse-related research for any of the possible remaining Seals. She knew that it was a relatively pointless way to occupy her time at the moment, but since she didn't want to actually get involved in the debate right now, it was easier to try and do something potentially practical than just sit around and talk with Sam and Adam about the issue. Sam and Adam had been able to deal with setting up the most likely protective barriers around the house while she carried out her work, but she just wasn't sure if this was going to work…  
  
"We're ready," Sam said, walking down the stairs to look at her with a grim expression. "We've closed off every other way into the house; if this thing's going to attack us, the only way in is the vent it used earlier, and we've got that covered."  
  
"In other words, our best strategy is an obvious trap?" Bela asked, looking grimly at Sam.  
  
"If you have a better idea-"  
  
"I don't," Bela countered, before she sighed and turned her attention back to the texts in front of her. "As with this lot, we're just having to make do with what's in front of us…"  
  
Further response was cut short when the sound of a door opening came from below them, prompting them both to look at each other in shock even before they heard a voice calling Adam's name. Glancing at Sam, Bela was about to ask if Adam had a girlfriend she hadn't heard about before now, but the sound of Adam calling for his mother ended that theory.  
  
"'Mom'?" Bela repeated, looking at Sam in surprise as they heard Adam hurrying downstairs towards the voice. "I thought you said-"  
  
"I did," Sam said grimly, grabbing his shotgun and hurrying for the source of the voice. Bela only paused long enough to make sure that Uriel's former blade was still in her jacket pocket before she hurried after the youngest Winchester. Arriving in the kitchen, the two found Adam staring in shock at a woman who was clearly his mother based on the pictures they'd seen in the house, wearing a nurse's uniform and holding her right side.  
  
"Mom?" Adam said, grinning at her in relief as he walked towards her.  
  
"It took me, but I got away-" Kate began.  
  
"From what?" Bela asked, glaring at the other woman as she kept one hand in her jacket, ready to draw her weapon if the need arose.  
  
"Get away from her," Sam said, drawing his gun to aim it at the woman.  
  
"Sam, what the Hell?" Adam said, looking at his brother indignantly.  
  
"She's not your mother!" Sam said firmly, before his gaze shifted to the woman. "Get away from him!"  
  
"What is going on?" the thing that almost certainly wasn't Kate asked, looking at the two strangers in confusion.  
  
"Adam, there was too much blood in the vents; your mother _can't_ be alive!" Bela said, looking urgently at the young man; whatever her thoughts were on the issue of him hunting in the future, Adam didn't deserve to be killed by something posing as his mother…  
  
Her thoughts were interrupted when Sam moved to shove Adam away from the woman, only for Adam to grab the shotgun from the Winchester before he realised what his younger brother was doing. For a moment, Bela was tensed to spring into action if Adam dropped the gun; she doubted he was ready to shoot something that looked like his mother, but if she could just-  
  
"Adam, that's not your mother!" Sam yelled desperately amid the chaos of the Kate-thing's protests. "Shoot it! It's not human!"  
  
As Adam came to a decision and aimed the gun at 'Kate', he suddenly smirked.  
  
"I know," he said, spinning around to strike Sam on the chin with the butt of the gun, knocking him down for the count before levelling the gun at Bela. "By the way, you may know our… colleague?"  
  
"Colleague?" Bela repeated, looking between Adam and the Kate-thing in confusion before another figure walked into the room, this one a tall man in a grey suit over a light blue shirt, looking at her with demonically-black eyes.  
  
"Hello, Abby," the new arrival grinned at her, prompting Bela to freeze in horror even as her fingers tightened around Uriel's knife.  
  
 _Her father_ …  
  
She didn't even have time to wonder what was going on before he raised one hand at her and she was thrown into the wall behind her before she could start to draw the angel blade from her jacket, blackness taking her brain as soon as her head struck the wall.


	37. Family Isn't Always Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In advance, brief reference will be made to what Bela's father did to her when he was alive; I won't provide any graphic descriptions, but considering that this chapter will include a grown man having fond memories of forcing himself on his pre-teen daughter, I thought a warning would be for the best

As she blinked her eyes open, Bela only took a moment to assess her surroundings, but the results weren't promising. She was sitting on the table in the Milligans' kitchen, her legs bound underneath the edge with what felt like duct tape when she tried to move them, something pressed up against her back that could only be Sam when she felt it move. Sitting at a chair beside the table was the thing that had taken the appearance of Kate Milligan, humming to itself as it cleaned its fingernails with a knife, while her former father's current meatsuit grinned at her in satisfaction.

"Ah, you're awake," the man said, his tone reaffirming his identity; all the times she'd woken up to find him standing over her bed, waiting for her to 'service' him…

"What are you even doing here?" Bela spat, trying to cover up her fear. "I would have thought Lilith would have kicked you back down to Hell after you blew it with that last Seal?"

"Oh, I lost a few points, but the knowledge of my connection to you was more than enough to keep me in the game," her 'father' chuckled, his new body retaining the disturbing arrogance that had always made her uncomfortable when he'd been alive. "I spent some time finding out more about your new associates, and after finding out what you were up to now… well, I felt that this was as good a time as any to catch up."

"And what are you doing with _them_?" Sam's voice suddenly called from behind her. "I thought demons and creatures didn't interact?"

"You worked it out?" the Kate-creature asked teasingly.

"Only one thing can look like someone else and isn't affected by any of the tests we ran," Sam said grimly. "You're not shapeshifters; you're ghouls."

"Ghouls?" Bela repeated, looking at 'Kate' in surprise. "I thought they only ate corpses… which explains what your father was investigating last time…"

"For the record, I find that term racist," 'Kate' said, looking sternly at Bela before she shrugged. "Still, you're right about our usual diet; my brother and I just decided to… try something fresh for a change."

"Which is why you don't look like a 'Thriller' reject?" Bela asked, unable to believe the analogy she'd just made as soon as she'd spoken; Dean must be having more of an impact on her than she'd realised if she was using his words like this. "Your last meal was Kate while she was still alive…"

"And I got the chance to chow down on her son," the thing they'd spent the last few days treating as Adam Milligan added, walking into the kitchen with a satisfied smirk. "All his thoughts, all his memories… we really _are_ what we eat."

"Nothing but monsters," Sam said scathingly, as 'Kate' got up and walked around behind Bela. Bela thought she heard something moving behind her, but it took feeling Sam tense up against her back and the sudden scent of blood to realise that the creature had just cut his arm.

"You know, you use that word a lot," Adam's voice said, as Bela heard a slight sucking sound from behind her that put her in mind of a cat lapping at a saucer of milk. "But I don't think it means what you think it does… you define us as monsters because we're not human? We never hurt anyone _living_ , until our father was killed by the _real_ monster-"

"You were depriving people of the last remnants of their loved ones because you wanted a snack; if you can't understand that's wrong, you don't have any right to claim that _we're_ the monsters!" Bela countered, only for Kate to reach over and slap her face.

"And we deserved to be left on our own because of our appetites?" 'Kate' said, glaring coldly at Bela. "The only blessing was that we still had each other."

"For twenty years, we lived like rats until we decided that it was time to step up," 'Adam' said, licking his bloody fingers as he grinned at them both. "And when our colleague here revealed what else we could accomplish… well, why shouldn't we get involved?"

"Involved in what?" Sam asked.

"Blood Will Unknowingly Kill Blood," Bela's father stated, chuckling as he walked over to stand to Bela's side, looking between her and Sam with a satisfied smile. "Oh, it never gets old…"

"Wait a minute…" Bela said, looking uncertainly at him for a moment her eyes widened in understanding. "Of course… the ghoul has Adam's blood because it ate him-"

"But Adam died not knowing that he even _had_ brothers, never mind who they were, so the fact that _you_ know now doesn't matter," her father confirmed, smiling at her in sick approval of her assessment.

"For the record, he was a real screamer," 'Kate' added with a smug grin. "He was actually still alive when we took our first bites…"

"There's no way to know if this method breaking a Seal will _work_ , of course," the demon added, chuckling as he looked between Sam and Adam, "but either way, my associates get their revenge, and this proves to be a _very_ interesting experience…"

"You son of a _bitch_!" Sam said, feeling like he was turning around to try and look at the speaker. "Who the Hell _are_ you?"

"Oh, you haven't guessed?" her father chuckled, as he reached over to stroke Bela's hair in a sick gesture of 'care' that had always terrified Bela since he used it to hold her down the first time he'd… come to her. "I was dear Abby's father back when I had my original body."

"…You piece of garbage," Sam practically spat at that news, after staring at the man in shocked disgust. "You did _that_ to your own _daughter_?"

"She was just… so… _pretty_ …" her father continued, looking at her with that sick mockery of caring he'd always used when telling her how 'beautiful' she was as he forced his way inside her as she lay in her bed, trembling in fear and pain as she felt some _thing_ enter her. "So sweet… so tender…"

" _Stop it_!" Sam yelled in outrage.

"Why?" her father said, standing back slightly to look at Sam for a moment, before he chuckled and looked at Bela. "Oh, did you decide to let this one get my seconds?"

"You were _never_ my first," Bela said firmly; what she was about to say might be sappy, but it _felt_ right if nothing else. "All you were was the biggest monster in my world; the only other good thing about my deal was that I made _sure_ of that!"

"You… had them… _heal_ you?" her father said, glaring at her in outrage.

"Do you even _realise_ what you were doing to me?" Bela spat in indignation. "I was only a _teenager_ and I knew that wasn't meant to go down there at that age; if I hadn't asked them to heal-"

Her head was sent reeling to the side as her father struck her in the side of the face, glaring indignantly at her.

"You _bitch_ ," he said, glaring angrily at her. "I just showed you how I cared-"

"You showed me _nothing_ but _pain_ ," Bela interjected, glaring coldly at her. "What you did to me wasn't love; it was just a sick, twisted perversion of what you were _meant_ to be to me!"

"I _loved_ you-!"

"You aren't meant to love your _daughter_ like that!" Sam cut in. "Your children should be loved without condition; nobody should _want_ something from their child the way you did!"

For a moment, the demon and the hunter simply glared silently at each other, but then their stand-off was interrupted when the door was kicked down, revealing Dean standing outside with a shotgun in his hands, pointing at the three people standing around his bound brother and lover.

"Hey, assholes!" he said, quickly moving the gun to target the 'Adam' ghoul, shooting it in the shoulder and knocking it back.

"Dean, they're ghouls!" Sam yelled urgently at his brother.

"And _he's_ a demon!" Bela cut in, jerking her head towards her father's spirit.

With that information, Dean shifted the gun to target the 'Kate' ghoul and blew her head off with a single blast.

"Which means head-shots," the elder Winchester said grimly, before he turned the gun on the demon. "And what's your role in this?"

"Checking up on dear Abby," the demon smirked at him. "I assume _you're_ the one she's sleeping with?"

"Abby?" Dean repeated, before his gaze narrowed as he studied the creature. "You were the _dad_?"

"Bingo," the man said, before his eyes narrowed as he focused on Dean. "And you _dared_ to deflower my little girl-"

Dean didn't even bother to respond to that statement; he simply turned the gun on the man and kept firing, cocking the gun as he unleashed shot after shot against the demon until it clicked to empty. Just as Dean walked up to the other man, 'Adam' leapt up and slammed Dean into the wall, only for Dean to turn around and strike the ghoul in the head. Taking advantage of both opponents being down, Dean continued to beat at the ghoul's head with the empty shotgun, pain and anger on his face as he vented his rage at everything this creature had taken from the brother he'd never known about, before Bela's desperate yell reminded Dean that there was still the demon to take into account.

"Nice work…" the bleeding demon said, smirking at Dean as the two blood-soaked men glared at each other. "Just remember… I had her… first…"

With those words, the man opened his mouth and black smoke burst from his mouth, the host collapsing to the ground with an anguished yell as the last of the demon left his body and his injuries were once again noticeable. For a moment, Dean, Sam and Bela could only stare at the assembled corpses in the room with them in grim silence, until Dean sighed and stood up as he set to work on releasing his brother and lover.

"First things first," he said, his tone firm despite what they'd just endured. "Once you're out, we'll deal with these damn ghouls, find the family of the poor schmuck who got used by that demon… and then we've got a cremation to sort out."

"Are you sure we should do this?" Sam asked, as he, Dean and Bela stood around the pyre that had been erected for Adam Milligan's partly-eaten body. The ghouls had been disposed of in the now-empty grave where they had left the Milligans, and the unfortunate host of Bela's father had been left in a park where it should look like someone had just attacked him, but Dean had insisted on this for Adam.

"You saw the pictures," Dean said, as he sprinkled Adam's wrapped corpse with lighter fluid. "And they couldn't have faked Dad's journal. Adam was our brother. He might not have been a hunter, but he deserves to go out like one."

"Amen," Bela said, nodding in agreement as Dean lit a match and tossed it onto the pyre, just before another thought came to her. "You didn't think about calling Castiel?"

"Adam's in a better place," Dean said firmly. "I'm not going to drag him back to this crap just because I wish we'd gotten a chance to know him."

The three of them stood in silence for a moment as the flames consumed Adam's body, before Dean spoke again.

"You know, I finally get why you and Dad butted heads so much," he said, glancing over at Sam

"You two were practically the same person."

Bela was just grateful that Sam looked as surprised at that statement as she did; from everything she'd seen of the brothers and heard about their father, Dean was more like John than Sam was.

"I mean, I worshipped the guy, you know?" Dean continued solemnly. "I dressed like him, I acted like him, I listen to the same music… But you were more like him than I will ever be. And I see that now."

"I'll… take that as a compliment," Sam said.

"You should," Bela smiled over at Sam, hoping that she'd understood Dean's assessment. "You might disagree on what to do sometimes… but you'd both do anything to protect your family from the situation in front of you."

The three of them stood in silence for a moment as they looked at Adam's burning body, before Dean looked awkwardly back at Bela.

"Sorry I couldn't kill your dad," he said apologetically.

"You'll get the chance later," Bela said firmly. "He isn't going to leave us alone."

"On that topic," Sam said, looking at her with an awkward smile, "you know… if we're talking about us protecting family… we're including you in that, right?"

Bela could only blink at that statement.

" _Me_?" she said incredulously. "After what I did-"

"You've done more than enough since you got back from Hell to make up for that," Sam said firmly. "After what… well, what's been up with you and Dean… and all the help you've been in giving Grandma the chance to adjust to all this…"

"What Sammy's tryin' to say," Dean said, as he looked at Bela with the closest thing to a warm smile he could offer in the current circumstances, "and I'll deny it to anyone else if you reveal I participated in this kinda 'chick flick moment'… but you're not just a friend to us; you're _family_."

Bela had no real idea how to respond to that, but before she'd even realised that she was doing it, she found herself wrapped in Dean's arms, sobbing uncontrollably into his shoulder as she felt Sam patting her awkwardly on the shoulder.

After her father had destroyed her entire concept of family when he killed her mother, she'd never expected anything like this to happen to her… and somehow, the Winchesters, Deanna Campbell, and Bobby Singer- a part of her wanted to include Castiel in that description, but the rest of her just didn't know exactly where he stood with her and the other angels- had accepted her in after her return from Hell even after learning her greatest secrets.

The circumstances under which it had come together might have been terrible by any definition, but she had a _family_ … a family that wouldn't turn on her and abuse her like her father had done to her and her mother…


	38. Meeting Jimmy Novak

The night after Adam's makeshift funeral, the Winchesters and Bela had remained in their chosen hotel for a couple of days in order to give themselves time to emotionally recuperate after such a difficult loss. Although Dean and Sam had remained in their hotel room at first, Sam and Bela had swapped rooms after the first night to give Dean a chance at alternative emotional support; Dean and Sam might be close, but Sam had acknowledged that the former thief was forming a particular attachment to his brother that was very different to his own.

"So…" Bela asked, as she and Dean sat on the bed after a few moments of silence. "Was it…?"

Despite starting the topic, the young woman's voice eventually trailed off, as she suddenly found herself lost for the best way to ask the following question.

"Rough finding out Dad had another life?" Dean finished for her, shrugging uncertainly. "I dunno… I mean, I was pissed when I found out, but as Sam said, Dad was as human as anyone, shit happens, and I can't exactly expect him to have been loyal to Mom _forever_ …"

He paused for a moment before he groaned as he looked at her, a renewed expression of self-loathing on his face. "God, what am I _doing_ here… I'm complaining about _my_ dad when yours-"

"It's important to you, Dean," Bela said, reaching over to squeeze his shoulder reassuringly, refusing to let her own issues affect her ability to be there for Dean; his focus might sound selfish, but at least he was aware of that. "I lost faith in my father long before he started… paying attention to me… but I… I never lost faith in the idea of what he _should_ have been. You're having to adjust your own vision of him, but you need to remember that everything your father taught you and wanted for you is still valid; there was just… more to him than you knew."

She sat in silence beside him for a moment, uncomfortable at the extent of what she'd just shared, before she said what she felt was the most important thing. "At least your news doesn't change the fact that your father was a good man."

Dean simply sat in silence as he stared at her, before he finally chuckled slightly.

"We're a right pair, aren't we?" he said. "You'd give anything to forget your father… and I keep finding reasons to remember mine when I learn that he wasn't who I thought he was."

"He was where it mattered," Bela said firmly. "Hold on to that."

Lost for words, Dean leaned over and kissed Bela, the two falling into the other's embrace before moving on to more intimate activities, exploiting their opportunity to enjoy their private room for the rest of the night. They'd tried to meet up now and again, but 'work' had always kept them too busy for anything more than the occasional date and a few quick sessions in the Impala, particularly when they were still trying to be discreet, but if Sam had been kind enough to give them privacy, they were going to make the most of it…

* * *

"We need to talk," Castiel said, walking up stand between Dean and Bela as they lay in their deckchairs at the end of a pier.  
  
"Hold on… are we _dreaming_?" Bela asked, looking down at her casual summer dress incredulously before she looked over at the angel. "And I'm wearing _this_?"  
  
"It is drawing on your own conception of what people wear when they are at peace," Castiel explained briefly, before turning back to look at Dean, who Bela noted appeared to be dressed as normal. "We must meet somewhere private; this place is not safe."  
  
"And our own heads aren't 'private'?" Dean countered, trying not to pay too much attention to the way Bela's curves filled out her thin dress as she lay in the sun.  
  
"Someone could be listening."  
  
"Castiel?" Bela asked, noting a sense of apprehension in the angel's manner. "What's wrong?"  
  
"Meet me here," Castiel said, handing the elder Winchester a piece of paper before he vanished from the pier, leaving Dean and Bela staring awkwardly at each other.  
  
"We go?" Bela asked, indicating the paper in Dean's hand.  
  
"We go," Dean said as he glanced at the address written on the paper. "Just need to get Sam once we… wake up…"

* * *

Walking into the warehouse that Castiel had identified as their meeting-place, Sam at their side and flashlights shining around them, Dean cursed the amount of limited information the angel had been able to give them.  
  
He didn't know what it was about that angel, but even though the only thing he'd definitely done for them on his own initiative had been dragging Bela out of Hell, Dean had come to like the guy for some strange reason, and he didn't want to find the guy dead.  
  
"Did he say what was so important?" Sam asked, glancing curiously at Dean.  
  
"If I knew, we wouldn't be here," the eldest Winchester said grimly as he headed up a fragile flight of stairs, staring incredulously at the damage on the upper level; it looked like virtually everything that could be knocked down without destroying the roof of this place _had_ been knocked down. "What the hell…?"  
  
"It looks like a bomb went off," Sam said, looking grimly at their shattered surroundings.  
  
"Or some kind of fight, anyway," Bela noted. "But who could give Castiel this kind of trouble?"  
  
"Check that out," Dean put in, indicating a symbol painted in blood on a nearby wall. "Look familiar?"  
  
"Like that symbol Anna used to banish the angels?" Bela suggested, shaking her head in confusion. "Why would Castiel be fighting his own kind?"  
  
"I don't know…" Dean said, shaking his head in frustration before the flashlight focused on a still form in the nearby rubble. "Cas? Cas; hey, Cas?"  
  
"What's…?" Castiel began, slowly sitting up as Dean and Bela moved to help him to his feet. "What… what's going on?"  
  
"Take it easy," Bela said, trying not to think about the slight shift in Castiel's voice as he looked around the room; what he'd been through must have been difficult…  
  
"Cas, you OK?" Sam asked anxiously.  
  
"Castiel…" the angel said, shaking his head as he looked at the three hunters. "I'm not Castiel; it's me."  
  
"What?" Bela asked, her mind flashing back to Castiel's earlier revelation that he was using a vessel rather than his own body. "You mean… you're Castiel's _vessel_?"  
  
"Jimmy," the man who had once been Castiel said. "My name's Jimmy."  
  
"Where the hell is Castiel?" Dean asked urgently.  
  
"He's gone," Jimmy said grimly.  
  
Bela could only stare in shock at that statement.  
  
Castiel was gone?  
  
The first person to see something worth saving in her… the first person to see any kind of actual _worth_ in her existence beyond a means of acquiring something… was gone?  
  
And what did that even mean for an angel? If Jimmy was here, had Castiel just returned to Heaven, or had something actually… _killed_ him?

* * *

Sitting in their latest motel room later that night, Bela wasn't sure what was weirder; seeing someone else in Castiel's body- even if she'd consciously known that Castiel was possessing someone, it was still easier to think of him as the one who 'belonged' there- or seeing the man she'd known as Castiel for the past year actually _eat_.  
  
"You mind… slowing down?" Dean asked, as the former vessel devoured another hamburger. "You're gonna give me angina."  
  
"I'm hungry," the man said simply.  
  
"When's the last time you ate?" Sam asked, looking incredulously at him.  
  
"I don't know," Jimmy replied, taking a deep suck of one of his drinks. "Months."  
  
"It… didn't occur to Castiel?" Bela asked.  
  
"He doesn't need to eat, so he never thought about doing it for me," Jimmy said, taking further bites as Bela thought about that.  
  
It was a point against Castiel, but on the other hand, if he'd just never thought about the fact that his vessel might get hungry even if he didn't… he had mentioned that it had been a while since any angels had manifested on Earth.  
  
"What the hell happened back there?" Sam asked, focusing the issue back to their most immediate problem. "It looked like some angel battle royale."  
  
"All I remember is a flash of light and I, uh…" the ex-vessel began, shrugging uncertainly. "I woke up and I was just, you know, like, me again."  
  
"So… Castiel just left?" Bela asked uncertainly.  
  
"I really don't know," the man said.  
  
"You remember anything about being possessed?" Sam asked, giving Bela a moment to collect herself; yelling at this man's inability to be helpful wouldn't help jog his memory.  
  
"Beyond that Castiel knew us, anyway," Bela added.  
  
"Bits and pieces," the man shrugged, still chewing on his burger. "I mean, angel inside of you, it's… kinda like being chained to a comet."  
  
As much as Bela liked Castiel, she had to wince at that image; no matter how much or little this man was aware of while the angel was in control, something like that couldn't be pleasant.  
  
"That doesn't sound like much fun," Dean spoke, voicing her thoughts before she could.  
  
"Understatement," the man acknowledged.  
  
"Do… you remember what Castiel wanted to tell us?" Bela asked anxiously.  
  
"Sorry," the man shrugged.  
  
"Come on," Dean said, clearly growing frustrated at the lack of information this man was able to provide. "What _do_ you know?"  
  
"My name is Jimmy Novak," the man said, putting down his burger as he looked solemnly at the three hunters gathered around him. "I'm from Pontiac, Illinois. I have a family… my wife Amelia, and my daughter Claire. We were fairly normal, with Claire going to school while Amelia and I worked… and then I started hearing voices while the TV shifted to some kind of static, or suffering some kind of fit when I'd never had any problems like that before…"  
  
"You had fits?" Bela asked."Castiel said… certain people could hear his voice…"  
  
"Maybe he didn't know that he had to adjust his volume when talking to me," Jimmy shrugged, before he continued his recollection. "Anyway, after a couple of tests of my faith from Castiel, including holding my hand in boiling water without being hurt, I put on my trenchcoat and went outside to talk to Castiel directly; he asked me to serve as his vessel, and I agreed so long as he could guarantee the safety of my family while I was away."  
  
"And then?" Dean asked.  
  
Jimmy shrugged. "After that, it's a few glimpses of the essentials of what he did while he was on Earth; I know he went to Heaven a couple of times, but I don't remember a thing about what he experienced up there. There's some bits with you guys, some of his talks about tracking other Seals down here, and then… well, like I said, I don't know _what_ happened before I came to when you found me."  
  
"Huh," Sam said, looking silently at Jimmy for a moment before he turned to look at Dean and Bela. "Can we… talk outside?"  
  
Nodding in understanding, Dean and Bela got up and followed Sam out of the room to the hotel  
  
"So what do we do?" Sam asked, as the three of them gathered outside.  
  
"What do you mean?" Dean asked, evidently surprised at his brother's question. "The guy's got a family; we buy him a bus ticket-"  
  
"When we only have one lead as to what happened to Castiel and a fairly good chance that the demons will be after him?" Bela interjected as she looked over at Dean. "In case you didn't notice, Jimmy in there is the only known example we have of an angel _leaving_ its vessel once it came to Earth; don't you think the demons would be rather interested in that?"  
  
"That's…" Dean began, before he sighed in frustration. "OK, that's a good point; why didn't I think of that?"  
  
"The advantage of thinking of everything in terms of how rare it is for years," Bela smiled slightly at her 'boyfriend'. "It might have been self-centered at the time, but it helps now."  
  
"OK, so if getting him home's off the table, what do we do?" Sam asked, indicating the room where Jimmy was still eating. "Get him to Bobby's and have Pamela or someone do a 'mind meld' thing to find out what Castiel might have left behind?"  
  
"I don't think psychics work like that…" Bela began, before she sighed in frustration. "But on the other hand, we were definitely looking at angel-on-angel violence; if Castiel was fighting his own kind on that scale, he must have had a reason, which is something we need to find out."  
  
"And there goes another thing from this job," Dean noted.  
  
"What?" Bela asked, looking at him curiously.  
  
"Y'know, it may not have looked like it much when we met you before Hell, but before we had all this Seal crap, we were actually often trying to help people get back to their families," Dean said, shaking his head as he glanced back at the room. "Now we're actively tryin' to keep this guy away from his…"  
  
"Hey, it's not like I don't _want_ to help him; we just have to remember that the demons are going to want to talk to him too," Sam pointed out.  
  
"The problem is going to be getting _him_ to accept that," Bela noted, looking grimly back at the room where Jimmy was still chowing down.  
  
Was it wrong of her to say that she preferred it when Castiel was the one in control of that body? The angel might be hard to get along with at times, but after getting to know him for a year, it almost felt… wrong to have the original human in control again…


	39. Losing the Angel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to jump straight to the aftermath of Jimmy's escape and the Winchesters saving his family from demons; the actual events weren't really changed from what came before, since Bela played little part in them

"He got away?" Dean said, glaring at his brother as Bela ran research on their laptop, unable to believe that things could have gone so wrong in a few hours. "You're meant to be on watch, and the guy _gets away_?"

"Hey, we were all tired-" Sam protested.

"And when you volunteered to stay up to keep watch, some schmuck whose only claim to fame is that Cas has been hanging out in him for a year manages to get the drop on you?" Dean interjected in frustration.

He'd appreciated that Jimmy was frustrated at not being able to go back to his family after spending the better part of a year acting as Castiel's meatsuit- even if he liked to think that the angel had been easier on the guy than demons would have been, considering that Jimmy had seemed pretty healthy even after that time Dean had stabbed him in the chest- but he'd hoped that the guy appreciated that they were only keeping him on lockdown until they could come up with a better plan…

"Can we focus on what _matters_ right now?" Bela countered, as she hit the last key on the laptop and smiled in relief. "Got it; Amelia and Claire Novak still seem to be living in the same place as they were a year ago when Jimmy dropped off the map."

"Anything about what they think happened to him?" Dean asked.

"Psychotic breakdown."

"Well, at least that gives _him_ an easy cover; can just say he went off to get therapy," Dean mused, before turning his attention back to Bela. "OK then, work out the fastest route to get us there by car; he might have a head-start, but maybe we can still intercept him before anyone else does."

Exchanging glances with each other, Bela was relieved to see from Sam and Dean's grim but guilty expressions that she wasn't the only one thinking that it would be easier if someone else got to Jimmy first; they didn't want any harm to come to the Novaks, but it might make it easier for them to convince Jimmy that he was in danger if he was attacked first…

* * *

Looking at the Novaks a few hours later, Bela still wasn't sure what was more unnerving to her right now; their renewed contact with Anna- who was apparently using her human body as her latest vessel now that she was an angel again- that strange phone-call she'd overheard Sam making during a gas-stop, or seeing the man she still thought of as Castiel acting like a concerned family man with a wife and daughter.  
  
She might be concerned about Anna's revelation that Castiel must be in trouble if he was apparently _dragged_ back to Heaven, but at the same time, after all that she'd been through with the Winchesters…  
  
Did she really want the angel back if it meant that Jimmy had to lose _his_ life? They were already planning to take him away from his wife and daughter for their own safety- having his former best friend killed while he was serving as a demon host was proof enough that Jimmy wouldn't be safe just trying to go back to his old life- but there had to be _something_ else they could do for him; maybe she could see about using a couple of her old contacts to set him up with a new life somewhere…  
  
"You were right," Jimmy said, looking grimly between the three hunters as they stood by the Impala, Amelia and Claire in the back seat.  
  
"I'm sorry we were," Dean noted.  
  
"I'm telling you, I don't know anything," Jimmy said earnestly.  
  
"Unfortunately, just because _we_ believe you doesn't mean that the demons do," Bela noted grimly. "And even if you _can_ convince them that you don't know anything, they're still going to want to dissect a former vessel to see what you can do."  
  
"And that's assuming they're being kind about it," Dean added. "Vivisection is more likely."  
  
"I'm gonna tell you once again, you're putting your family in danger," Sam said firmly. "You have to come with us."  
  
"How long?" Jimmy asked, after taking another glance back at his family. "And don't give me that 'cross that bridge when we get to it' crap."  
  
"Don't you get it?" Sam said, demonstrating a surprising frustration for the brother Bela had always thought of as the 'polite' Winchester. " _Forever_. The demons will never stop. You can _never_ be with your family. So you either get as far away from them as possible or you put a bullet in your head. And that's how you keep your family safe. But there's no getting out and there's no going home."  
  
"Well, don't sugarcoat it, Sam," Dean said.  
  
"I'm just telling him the truth, Dean," Sam noted bitterly. "Someone has to."  
  
With nothing else to say that the brothers hadn't already said, Bela simply shot an apologetic glance to Jimmy before he walked over to talk to his family, the three hunters standing back to give the Novaks some privacy.  
  
Their own families might not have been much to write home about, but that didn't make it any easier to see what was probably a happy family being forced to part because they got caught up in the Winchesters' chaos.  
  
Bela would never regret the bond she'd developed with the Winchesters, but she had to admit, there were some times when it would be easier to be her old self rather than deal with the guilt of everything she'd brought upon these people…  
  
After Jimmy got into the Impala, leaving the Novaks to take another hotwired car for themselves, Bela could only sit in the back as she looked solemnly at the man who'd once been Castiel's host.  
  
The thought that he was gone for good…  
  
God… after everything she'd gone through today, she just needed a few hours' uninterrupted sleep…

* * *

In hindsight, she really should have expected that the desired sleep was too much for her to expect after everything else that had gone wrong today. Not only was there some kind of tension between the two Winchesters about something she couldn't identify after she woke up, but they'd also received a phone call from the demons, revealing that Amelia had been possessed and Claire was being held hostage somewhere, with nothing else for them to do but get to the warehouse that had been designated as their new meeting-place.  
  
"Alright," Dean said, looking awkwardly at Jimmy as he re-donned the trenchcoat that Bela couldn't help but think of as Castiel's. "They're expecting you to come alone, so that's exactly what you're gonna do."  
  
"We'll work our way through the catwalks; we'll be right behind you," Sam confirmed.  
  
"All you have to do is stall until we can do our part," Bela added; asking him to be calm would probably be asking too much, considering what was at stake if anything went wrong.  
  
"Right…" Jimmy said, shaking his head in exasperation. "Just… give me a moment, OK?"  
  
As he walked off, Sam and Bela looked grimly at Dean.  
  
"There's no way they're expecting him to come alone, Dean," the younger Winchester noted  
  
"You know this is probably a trap."  
  
"Yeah, I got that," Dean said solemnly. "Which is why I've got a plan."  
  
Bela had no idea if she should feel optimistic or anxious at that revelation; as much as she wanted to have faith in Dean's plans, in her experience, when he attempted some long-term strategy, it didn't always go too well…

* * *

"Brilliant plan, Dean," Sam noted, voicing Bela's own frustration as the three of them were lead into the warehouse, the demon-possessed Amelia clearly in charge of this particular group as she faced the shaken Jimmy.  
  
"Yeah, well, nobody bats a thousand," Dean said grimly.  
  
"Got the knives?" Amelia asked, the demon holding Sam holding up Ruby's knife while another casually brandished Uriel's old sword from Bela's inner jacket pocket. " _Nice_... how'd you get that one?"  
  
"The previous owner was a git," Bela said, glaring firmly at the demon in Amelia before another thought occurred to her. "And what makes you think you can hold us?"  
  
"Well, you _did_ just drop into my lap…" 'Amelia' began with a chuckle, before her expression became firmer. "And now for the punchline; everybody dies."  
  
When Amelia drew a gun and aimed it at Jimmy, Bela focused everything she had into her hands in a desperate attempt to channel her remaining demonic powers, hurling her arms out as far as she could despite her current confinement. The resulting surge of 'whatever' Bela did with her powers managed to knock the demons immediately around her back a few crucial feet, leaving her with enough freedom to break out of their grip and grab Uriel's knife, jamming it into the chest of the nearest demon. As the Winchesters used the opportunity to break free of their own captors, Sam grabbed the demon knife before slicing the throat of the demon that had been holding it. Dean hurried over to examine the fallen Jimmy, the former vessel bleeding from the gunshot wound to his chest, before he found himself pinned down by another, leaving Bela to turn and look at the trapped Claire just as she stood up from her chair to grab the pipe that a demon was about to strike her with.  
  
Before Bela had a chance to wonder what was happening, Claire had slammed her free hand against the demon's forehead, causing a brilliant glow to emerge from its eyes and mouth before it fell. Turning her attention to the other demons, 'Claire' got up from her chair and placed her hand against the head of the demon that Dean was currently struggling with. With Dean's opponent exorcised, he, Bela and 'Claire' turned to look at Sam just as he stood back from the demon he'd been fighting, blood staining his lips as he held out a hand towards Amelia, clenching his fist before a burst of smoke emerged from her mouth, the demon fleeing once again.  
  
As Dean hurried over to keep Amelia on her feet, Sam wiped his mouth as 'Claire' walked over to the fallen and bleeding Jimmy, closely followed by Bela.  
  
"Of course we keep our promises," the girl said, in a particularly solemn tone. "Of course you have our gratitude. You served us well."  
  
"Castiel?" Bela asked, looking at the girl in surprise; she'd gathered that angels had to be more selective about their hosts, but the idea of it being a family trait hadn't occurred to her before now. "Is that… that _you_?"  
  
"Yes," 'Claire' said, nodding briefly at the former thief before she turned back to Jimmy. "Your work is done. It's time to go home now. Your real home. You'll rest forever in the fields of the Lord. Rest now, Jimmy."  
  
"No… Claire?" Jimmy asked weakly.  
  
"She's with me now," the girl/angel said. "She's chosen. It's in her blood, as it was in yours."  
  
"Please, Castiel…" Jimmy gasped, clearly fighting to remain conscious. "Me… just take me… Take me, please…"  
  
"Jimmy-" Bela began.  
  
"My choice…" Jimmy said, glaring briefly at her despite his own agony before he turned back to the angel. "Take me."  
  
"You have to understand," Claire/Castiel said solemnly. "You won't die or age. If this last year was painful for you, picture a hundred, a thousand more like it."  
  
"It doesn't matter," Jimmy said resolutely, demonstrating the kind of fatherly affection Bela would have given anything to receive as a child. "You take me… just take me…"  
  
"As you wish," Claire said, placing a hand on Jimmy's face and apparently concentrating for a moment, before a bright light came from his eyes and mouth. As Claire fell to her knees, Jimmy's body stood up, his bloodstained shirt now pristine once again.  
  
"Castiel?" Bela asked, looking anxiously at the angel, only to be unnerved as he looked down at her with a particularly grim expression. Temporarily unnerved at the glare, Bela simply stared in silence as Castiel turned to look at Amelia before walking off once again.  
  
"Cas, hold up!" Dean called out anxiously. "What were you gonna tell us?"  
  
"I learned my lesson while I was away, Dean," the angel replied, his tone emotionless even by his usual standards. "I serve Heaven. I don't serve man… and I certainly don't serve you."  
  
With those words, Castiel turned and walked out of the warehouse, leaving Dean, Sam and Bela to look awkwardly at the shaken Novaks, as the family lost their husband and father all over again.  
  
Even as Bela knew that they had to get the mother and daughter to safety, she had a feeling that Dean was going to want to address what Sam had just done to exorcise that demon from Amelia.  
  
Her own powers might be questionable, but at least Castiel had explained their source and confirmed that they would go away eventually; if Sam was drinking demon blood to trigger his own abilities, that opened up _so_ many questions about what he was doing to use those powers…


	40. Blood Detox

Sitting up in Bobby's main living room, Bela had no idea how she should feel about the situation currently facing them. On the face of it, Castiel returning to Earth should have been a good thing, but now that she knew about Jimmy Novak and everything he'd lost by becoming a vessel, she would have felt uncomfortable about that twist even if Castiel had acted normally when he'd returned, and that stuff he'd said about how he'd 'learned his lesson' up in Heaven didn't exactly make her feel better.

Add in the fact that Sam was currently locked up in the panic room in Bobby's basement, having God-only-knew what kind of reaction to Dean and Bobby's attempts to get him off the demon blood he'd been drinking to sustain his strange powers, and Bela had no idea what to think. Even when she'd considered the Winchesters a pair of screw-ups back when she'd just been a thief, she'd also considered them too 'pure' to try something this twisted and relatively desperate, and now she'd learned that Sam Winchester of all people was drinking demon blood…

Her own strange abilities might be demonic in nature, but she didn't have to do anything to sustain them and she had also been told that they'd go away eventually; the idea that Sam was doing this to himself on _purpose_ …

The sound of footsteps prompted her to look around as Dean walked up from the basement, his expression grim.

"How is he?" Bela asked.

"Still a mess," Dean said grimly. "He keeps on talkin' about how he needs this blood to kill Lilith, but he just doesn't seem to get it; he's been lying to everyone for _months_ to get more of the stuff, and he thinks he's off the hook because he's using these freaky powers to kill demons?"

"You know," Bela began, looking uncomfortably at Dean, feeling obligated to bring this up even if he didn't like it, "it's not like we haven't used _my_ abilities either, and we know they could be… dangerous…"

"The difference is that you get the risks, you use it only when everything else hasn't worked, and you aren't turning yourself into some strung-out junkie to use them," Dean said. "Maybe he doesn't want to admit that he's hooked, and maybe we couldn't have stopped Alastair without them, but at least you don't choose to go out there and guzzle down on some demons just because you want a boost; what about that whole sick picture _doesn't_ sound like a junkie?"

"Fair point," Bela acknowledging, sighing as she stared over at the basement. "I've been wondering if we should call your grandmother, but… well, with Sam in this state…"

"Yeah, probably not a good idea to drop her in the middle of this on top of our bigger drama," Dean noted grimly, before he looked at her with a new curiosity. "Actually, where _is_ she right now? I mean, I appreciated you running that check on Adam without telling her, don't get me wrong, but…"

"She's been here long enough to cope with the future on her own, Dean; I stay with Deanna because I like her company, but she doesn't need me to hold her hand all the time," Bela said, smiling in understanding at the eldest Winchester. "Actually, I called her while I was on my way to Windom, and she said she was looking into getting her teaching credentials re-established."

"Teaching?" Dean said, smiling despite his grim mood. "She did that before?"

"She was a substitute rather than a full teacher, but it was something she enjoyed that let her pay the bills between hunts," Bela smiled at his suddenly brighter expression. "Now that we've picked up a few artefacts we can sell on as historical curios after doing a little damage in the right places, she's… well, she's looking for people who can update her credentials while still keeping them valid."

"Good for her," Dean said, smiling in approval.

"Really?" Bela asked, surprised despite herself.

"Let's just say… last few months, I'm starting to get why people would like a taste of normal in this messed-up world of ours," Dean said, the look in his eyes as he stared at Bela making her feel surprisingly warm in more than the obvious.

Their relationship might be intermittent, but even the implication that she'd made Dean think about something like _that_ …

The sound of Sam screaming from the basement broke the pleasant mood that had fallen over them, leaving Dean looking grimly at the door as Bobby suddenly walked into the hall, carrying a small tray with three glasses of whiskey on it.

"How long's this gonna take?" Dean asked, after he and Bela had taken a glass each from the tray.

"Here, let me look it up in my demon-detox manual- oh wait, no one ever wrote one," Bobby said, glaring at Dean for a moment before his expression softened. "No telling how long it'll take. Hell, or if Sam will even live through it."

Dean was spared from thinking about that issue any further when the phone rang, Bobby picking it up with a grim expression.

"Hello?" he said, listening for a moment before hanging up. "Suck dirt and die, Rufus. You call me again, I'll kill you."

"What's up with Rufus?" Dean asked.

"He knows," Bobby said grimly, the phone ringing before he could elaborate on that comment. "I'm busy, you son of a bitch; this better be important."

"What is it?" Bela asked, Bobby holding up a frustrated hand to halt Bela's questions as he listened to the phone call.

"This can't be good," Dean said, grimly studying his unofficial uncle as Bobby's expression became increasingly grim.

"Just to check…" Bela asked, glancing over at Dean, "we are talking about Rufus Turner here, right?"

"Right," Dean said. "You know him?"

"I heard of him, but I tried to stay away from him; he was… well a bit too insightful for me," Bela said.

" _Too_ insightful?" Dean repeated.

"Dean," Bela smiled at him, "no offence, but you have to admit… back when we met, you were a _bit_ careless."

"It's not like we were _expecting_ a waitress to pocket the rabbit's foot-"

"The likes of Rufus would have been," Bela said, smiling at him in that warm manner that Dean had come to recognise as her not-quite-apologising for her past behaviour. She was about to say more when Bobby put the phone down, looking grimly at the younger two.

"The news…" the official truck driver began solemnly, reaching over to pull a nearby laptop closer, tapping the keyboard to bring up a particular article. "The news ain't good."

"This is what Rufus called about?" Dean asked, staring at the screen. "'Key West sees ten species go extinct'?"

"Yep," Bobby confirmed. "Plus, Alaska, fifteen-man fishing crew all stricken blind, cause unknown. New York, teacher goes postal, locks the door, kills exactly sixty-six kids. All this in a single day. I looked them up; there's no doubt about it. They're all seals. Breaking. Fast."

"Makes sense," Bela noted, nodding thoughtfully at the screen. "Every Seal we've encountered has involved some kind of corruption of the natural order; good people go to Hell, dead people become ghosts when they shouldn't have, someone tries to kill Reapers… and now people go inexplicably blind and a teacher kills the students he's meant to be caring for…"

She trailed off, but the dark expression on her face made it clear that she was thinking of her father, and Dean made a mental note to take great care when he got the chance to kill that smoky son of a bitch; he didn't like what he'd done in Hell, but some people deserved more than Ruby's knife to the heart.

"How many left?" he asked Bobby.

"Who knows?" the older man shrugged. "Even with everything we saved, can't be that many. Where the Hell are your angel pals?"

"You tell me," Dean said.

"I'm just wondering…" Bobby said, after a moment's pause.

"What?" Dean asked.

"The apocalypse being nigh and all…" Bobby said awkwardly. "Is now really the right time to be having this little domestic drama of ours?"

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"Well," Bobby said, clearly uncomfortable with what he was about to suggest, "I don't like this any more than you do… but Sam can kill demons. He's got a shot at stopping Armageddon."

"So what?" Dean said before Bela could speak. "Sacrifice Sam's life, his soul, for the greater good? Is that what you're saying? Times are bad, so let's use Sam as a nuclear warhead?"

" _Nobody_ is saying that," Bela said firmly.

"Trust me, I don't like it either; you know I love that kid like a son," Bobby said, emotion obvious as he looked at Dean. "All I'm saying is maybe he's here right now instead of on the battlefield because we love him too much."

As much as Bela would have liked to object to Bobby's argument, she had to concede that he might have a point right now; if Sam was just doing this to exorcise demons, she might have objected, but if he was able to actually kill something as old as Alastair when he was 'fully charged'…

Dean might have been the one she had the most obvious connection with, but she wasn't exactly indifferent to Sam either; things had been so much easier when she didn't have to care about other people.

* * *

"Anything?" Bela asked, as Dean walked in from the junkyard, where he'd gone out claiming that he wanted some time alone after Bobby made his last suggestion.  
  
"Depends," Dean said, looking at her in an awkward manner that left Bela suddenly grateful that Bobby was in a different room. "When Cas finally showed, I tried to ask him about whatever he wanted to talk to us 'bout earlier, but all he had to say was that it wasn't important, and then, when I asked him 'bout Sam…"  
  
"It wasn't good?"  
  
"Pretty much confirmed everything I'm worried about," Dean nodded grimly. "We let Sam do this, Cas thinks we'll have to hunt him afterwards."  
  
"Oh," Bela said, lost for anything better to say. "Couldn't we use…?"  
  
"The Colt?" Dean finished. "Maybe, but considering how old Lilith's meant to be, along with the fact that we know witches can stop the bullets, I wouldn't like to pin everything on it. Even assuming that Crowley guy didn't tell her that we took it, we'd got one shot she wouldn't see coming, and then she'd be ready for our next attempt to use that thing unless we got her somewhere that would _definitely_ put her down fast."  
  
"Point," Bela acknowledged; after Ruby's knife had failed against Alastair, she knew that they couldn't trust even a supposedly unstoppable weapon against something as ancient as Lilith. "So… did Castiel have an alternative?"  
  
"Just one," Dean said. "I take her down for the angels instead."  
  
"And you're sure about that?"  
  
"Hell no," Dean said. "But if Cas says this'll save Sam… better to make a deal with the angels than the demons, right?"  
  
Bela's silence spoke volumes as she stared at Dean for a short while before answering.  
  
"A few days ago, I would have agreed with you," she said at last. "But after what they've done to Castiel…"  
  
"Hey," Dean said, walking over to crouch in front of her, placing a hand over hers in a gesture of sympathy that Bela automatically knew he'd never do with anyone but her. "I don't like what's happened to the guy either, but right now… I'm working with what we've got, and what we've got says that angels are at least tryin' to save the planet even if they're being dicks about it."  
  
"And that justifies you signing up to be their bitch?" Bobby's voice suddenly cut in, the younger two hunters looking over at the older man in surprise as he stood in the nearest door.  
  
"How long-?" Dean began.  
  
"Long enough," Bobby replied firmly. "After everything you've said about them, _now_ you trust them?"  
  
"Come on, give me a little credit, Bobby; I've never trusted them less," Dean countered. "I mean, they come on like shady politicians from planet Vulcan."  
  
"Particularly the ones from _Enterprise_ ," Bela put in, shrugging as the two men looked at her in surprise. "What; I had to watch _something_ when I wanted to get away from work!"  
  
"Right…" Dean said, smiling slightly at her before he sighed and turned back to Bobby. "Point is, if it's a choice between trusting angels or letting Sammy trust a demon…"  
  
"I see your point," Bobby sighed.  
  
"You hear that?" Dean noted, drawing Bela's attention to the sudden absence of noise from the panic room.  
  
"Yeah," Bobby added grimly. "That's a little too much nothing."  
  
The three of them didn't need to say anything more before they were hurrying down to the basement, Dean and Bobby peering through the small window in the door as Bela waited behind them. She couldn't see what was happening on the other side, but judging by what sounded like a human body moving on the other side of the door, along with a few faint groans, Sam was at least still alive…  
  
"What if he's faking?" Dean asked.  
  
"You really think he would?" Bobby countered, which did nothing to answer Bela's questions about what was happening.  
  
"I think he'd do anything," Dean began, before Bela glimpsed something move through the air through the window.  
  
"That ain't faking," Bobby said, quickly opening the door to reveal Sam pinned to the wall, shaking like he was trying to fight off some invisible force before the two men dragged him off the wall and pinned him to the ground.  
  
"We're gonna have to tie him down for his own safety," Bobby said, Bela struck by how helpless she felt as Dean tied his belt around Sam's mouth while Bobby held his arms still.  
  
God, she was just starting to see Sam as a friend and it was hard for her to look at him in this condition; how were they able to _do_ this…?  
  
"Dean?" Bobby said, looking urgently at the frozen older Winchester. "You with me? Dean! Before he has another fit!"  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Dean said, as Bela hurried over to check the cot they'd set up in the room earlier. "Let's just get it over with."  
  
It didn't take long for them to strap Sam's arms and legs down to the cot, but even if he remained still throughout the process, Bela had no idea how they were going to move on from this.  
  
No matter what they tried to do to help Sam or face the Apocalypse, it seemed like things just kept on getting more complicated…


	41. Caring for Winchesters

As she sat grimly in Bobby's living room, Bela had to admit that one of the major disadvantages of trying to be the 'good guy' in the supernatural world was actually being concerned about other people.

She might appreciate how she actually had people to care about her if she ended up dead this time around, to say nothing of having people she could trust not to stab her in the back if it was 'convenient', but right now she was wondering if the negatives made up for the positives. She'd spent the last few hours sharing Dean and Bobby's concerns about what was happening to Sam as he went through his demon blood withdrawal, when she once wouldn't have particularly cared one way or the other, and now that Sam had somehow managed to escape from the panic room, they just had even more to worry about.

She appreciated that Bobby hadn't been able to bring himself to actually shoot Sam when he caught him trying to steal a car, and she recognised that she and Dean had agreed that they should 'rotate schedules' after so long trying to keep watch over Sam's condition, but that didn't stop her from feeling frustrated at this unfortunate turn of events.

"Anything?" she asked, looking up anxiously as Bobby appeared in the room's door.

"Nothing," the mechanic/hunter said grimly. "Dean says he's got a lead by tracing the stuff Sam wouldn't steal or use, and headed off to check out somethin' around Jamestown, but that's not gonna be much help if Sam's anticipating it as well."

"And we have to assume he's with Ruby, which means that things are just not going to go well if he _does_ find him," Bela noted, shaking her head in exasperation. "Winchesters… when they fall apart, they _really_ fall apart, don't they?"

"Trust me, John wasn't much better," Bobby smiled grimly. "Took him years to apologise to Sam for basically throwing the kid out when he went to Stanford, and I still think part of that was just him wantin' to end it on a fairly up note when he thought he was goin' to die taking on that yellow-eyed son of a bitch; if he'd just gone on as usual, he'd probably have left it all as it was."

"That's the boys, I guess" Bela shrugged with a slightly awkward smile. "We can't live with them when they're being stupid, but we can't live without them at their best."

"True," Bobby grinned, handing Bela a beer as he sat down beside her, opening his own bottle and taking a sip. "Might get on our nerves at times, but those boys are still family."

"If only _they_ could see that sometimes…" Bela mused, shaking her head as she reflected on some of the things she'd seen and heard about the Winchesters' family history.

"You OK with all this?"

"Pardon?" Bela asked, looking at her new friend in surprise.

"Well, I get that you started all this 'cause you didn't want to go back to Hell, and I appreciate that you've been helpin' Deanna adjust, but… well, everything that's been goin' on since this mess started…"

"I'm not backing out just because Sam's being an idiot," Bela said, smiling slightly despite herself. "He's making a few stupid decisions, but he's… he's a good person."

Bobby smiled at her despite the grim topic of discussion.

"You're OK too, Talbot," he said, his tone surprisingly soft when he was talking to someone with Bela's history. "Had our problems with you last year, but now… well, I can get Dean's sentiment."

"He _told_ you about that?" Bela looked at Bobby in surprise.

"Wanted to be sure that we knew he trusts you," Bobby shrugged slightly. "Aren't many people Dean relies on that much, and you've probably met over half of 'em already; Harvelles hit it off, but he's not had the time to check back with 'em since he made the deal…"

"Things happen," Bela smiled, before she looked at her phone. "Do you think…?"

"No," Bobby said, shaking his head. "Believe me, I've thought about gettin' involved in some of their family tiffs more than once, but when Winchesters are pissed at each other, best you can do is hope that they don't do anything too stupid before you can get 'em to calm down."

"The problem with this family is everyone gets so set in their ways, I suppose," Bela noted thoughtfully. "I mean, from what you've told me of John, what Deanna's told me about Samuel, and what I've seen of those two…"

"Tell me about it; they get set in their ways and there's no stopping 'em until they get a major epiphany," Bobby noted. "Whole reason Dean made the first deal, when you get down to it; got so caught up in the idea that he's got to protect Sam that he couldn't do anything about it once he'd failed like that."

"And I once accused him of being a few steps off being a serial killer…" Bela mused, shaking her head at the memory of what her past self had been like.

Dean and Sam had many problems, but one thing she was certain of now was that they could never be indiscriminate killers; they only ever killed things that would kill others if they were left alone.

"We all screw up," Bobby said. "Hell, look at me; killed my dad and never managed to apologise to my wife…"

"Your wife?" Bela repeated, looking at him in surprise. "What happened?"

For a moment, Bobby sat in silence, staring at the wall in front of him for a moment, until he finally spoke.

"She was possessed," he said grimly. "Rufus saved me, but she'd already been too… I didn't know what was happenin' back then…"

"That was how you found out what was out there?" Bela asked, looking at him in surprise.

John's reputation had been fairly well-known, but Bobby kept his past so quiet that Bela wasn't sure anyone knew what had gotten him started in the life…

"Yeah," Bobby nodded, sitting silently for a moment before he smiled at her. "Only told this to the boys after that dreamwalking mess, but… well, like Dean said, you're family; deserve to know the truth."

That small sentence said more to Bela than any longer ones ever could.

"Anyway," Bobby said, standing up with a solemn sigh, "I'd better check police records; might have something new to help Dean trace wherever Sam went next."

It might have cut their moment of bonding short, but Bela appreciated that opening up to her about something like that would have been difficult for Bobby; whatever he said, it had only been a few months since she'd contributed to the chain of events that sent one of his near-sons to Hell for four months.

Even after what Dean had told her while they were cremating Adam- even after spending so much time over the last few months with Deanna- it was little moments like that which helped Bela feel like she was genuinely becoming part of the Winchesters' odd little family dynamic…


	42. Lectures on Loyalty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In advance, I will confirm that Sam's scenes with Ruby at this point were all basically the same as they were in canon; the focus at this point will be Dean, Bela and Bobby, for obvious reasons

"You _left him_ with _Ruby_?" Bela glared incredulously at Dean as the other hunter returned to Bobby's house. "After everything you've said-"

"What the hell was I _meant_ to do?" Dean countered; only the pain in his eyes made it clear just how much he'd been brooding over his decision since he'd last seen his brother. "If I'd tried to drag him back here he'd have just run straight off back to her; she's got him convinced he needs her to gank Lilith on his own, no matter _what_ I tried to say to him…"

"And how much of that was because you don't like the idea of him working along rather than the idea of him working with a demon?"

"What?" Dean looked at her in shock, his expression outraged at the scenario she'd just suggested. "You think I don't _want_ Sam to be able to handle himself on his own?"

"You've spent most of your life being ready to pull him out of the fire; I think you might have some trouble accepting the idea that he can look after himself-"

"It's not whether he's capable of doing it alone or not, Bela; it's the fact that he's trusting that _bitch_ more than me!" Dean yelled. "I can trust you and Bobby because you're _talking_ about what you're trying to do, and Grandma at least lets us know if she's going after something big in case it all goes wrong, but Sammy… he's spent months sneaking around with this demon bitch without telling us a thing about what he's doing with her! We've got the damn Apocalypse about to kick off; I don't have time to worry about this-"

"He's your _family_ ; what happened to that being the most important thing to you?"

"He threw it away first; he started it in Stanford and he only stuck it out this long because he didn't have anywhere else to be," Dean said grimly, hostility fading to leave a burning resentment that Bela liked even less. "I'm sick of chasing after him; he can do what he wants."

"You don't mean that," Bobby put in, looking grimly at Dean as he walked into the room.

"Yeah, I do," Dean said coldly. "Sam's gone. He's gone. I'm not even sure if he's still my brother anymore. If he ever was."

Bela had no idea what she could say to that; on one level, she had to believe that Dean was just hurting after what Sam had done to him, but on the other hand, she had nothing to say that might help Dean at a moment like this…

"You stupid, stupid son of a bitch!" Bobby said, breaking Bela's train of thought; she'd never heard the gruff hunter sound that harsh to the Winchesters when he wasn't criticising them over a hunt. "Well, boo hoo, I am so sorry your feelings are hurt, princess! Are you under the impression that family's supposed to make you feel good?! Make you an apple pie, maybe? They're supposed to make you miserable! That's why they're family!"

"I told him that we were done if he walked out that door and he did it anyway!" Dean countered. "That was his choice!"

"You sound like a whiny brat," Bobby said; Bela wanted to leave before this conversation became any more intense, but at the same time she couldn't think of a way to get out that wouldn't draw more attention to her presence than she felt comfortable with

"No, you sound like your dad. Well, let me tell you something; your dad was a coward."

"My dad was a lot of things, Bobby, but a coward?" Dean said, glaring at the older hunter.

"He'd rather push Sam away than reach out to him," Bobby countered grimly. "Well, that don't strike me as brave. You are a better man than your daddy ever was. So you do all of us a favor; don't be him."

Dean simply stood in silence as he looked out of the window, but before Bela could even try and think of something to say in this situation, there was a sudden flurry of wings and Dean vanished, leaving Bela and Bobby to exchange shocked glances with each other.

"OK," Bobby said after a moment's silence. "That… happened."

"Can't _anything_ stay fixed for a few moments?" Bela groaned in exasperation. "Castiel's acting off, Sam's working with a demon, and now the _angels_ have abducted Dean? Is _anyone_ on our side right now?"

"You don't think the angels are on our side?"

"Do you?"

"Point," Bobby nodded grimly, after taking a moment to think about their recent actions. "Don't get me wrong, Cas was an OK sort once you got past his more distant attitude, but after what you've told me about that Uriel prick, and how little we've seen of other angels, I'm just wondering how committed they are to helping us…"

Bela hated to admit it, but she could see Bobby's point; they'd never actually seen any evidence of the angels managing to save any of the other Seals, even if she appreciated that the Reaper Seal was one the angels couldn't have dealt with for obvious reasons.

God… she'd spent years thinking that there wasn't anything in her worth saving before she was saved by an angel, and now the one angel she'd actually believed in didn't seem to care any more.

"Well," she said, in a weak attempt to give her and Bobby something to do, "tracking options?"

"For Sam or Dean?"

"Whichever works best."

* * *

After several hours of research, Bela was starting to remember why she'd fallen into her old habit of thinking only about herself in the first place; worrying about other people was far more exasperating than just having to think about yourself. She and Bobby had quickly exhausted their most obvious methods for finding people, which included the tracking spell she'd used to find Dean the last time the angels had taken him somewhere, and nothing had been able to give them any kind of clue where Dean or Sam were. They'd called Deanna to go over what materials were available in her husband's old compound, but right now, Bela wasn't sure if the book she was reading featured a new variation of that tracking spell or was something completely different.  
  
She appreciated everything she'd found since she returned from Hell- a new job, a more meaningful existence, people who cared about her, and even whatever she was developing with Dean- but just once, couldn't things be simple?  
  
"There is no need to be concerned."  
  
Bela refused to allow herself to be startled by that voice; she had spent so long dealing with too many monsters to be shocked when someone she was fairly sure didn't want to kill her suddenly appeared behind her.  
  
"Considering that you abducted Dean and Sam's gone missing, I think I have every _right_ to be concerned," she said, turning in her chair to glare at Castiel. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"  
  
"I cannot account for Sam's location at this time, but Dean is being kept in safety until the time is right," the angel replied.  
  
"The time is right?" Bela repeated. "For what?"  
  
"For him to kill Lilith."  
  
"That's possible?" Bela asked, before reminding herself of the real issue. "Hold on; why are the angels so invested in this _now_?"  
  
"There is only one seal left," Castiel explained solemnly. "Just as the first seal could only be broken when a righteous man shed blood in Hell, the last seal may only be broken by Lilith herself. The seal can be broken at midnight tomorrow, but Zachariah is still working out where it will take place."  
  
"Zachariah?" Bela repeated. "I don't think we've met him yet… right?"  
  
"You have not," Castiel confirmed. "He is in charge of my garrison."  
  
"Does that mean he replaced Anna?"  
  
"No, he was her superior as well."  
  
"Right," Bela said, nodding awkwardly at that news; if an angel that senior was getting involved, things were bound to get complicated. "So… he's keeping Dean on lockdown until you know where Lilith is, and _then_ he'll send Dean off to kill her?"  
  
"Precisely," Castiel said.  
  
"You do know that's a stupid plan, right?"  
  
"Excuse me?" Castiel looked at her in surprise.  
  
"You want to eliminate Lilith, but you've just suddenly decided to keep the person you want to kill her on lockdown when there's only one seal left?" Bela countered. "We should be out there stopping Lilith _now_ , not waiting around for her to attack!"  
  
"I am obeying orders-"  
  
"If that was all you did, I'd still be _Hell_ , remember?" Bela interrupted, her usual discomfort at the idea of arguing with Cas forgotten as she glared at the angel. "I don't know what they did to you when they dragged you back to Heaven, but you've done too much to help us before then for me to believe you're seriously _this_ heartless!"  
  
"I serve God-"  
  
"And where _is_ he in all this? So far all I'm hearing is your superiors throwing their weight around once again and you're just standing there and taking it; where's the angel who dragged me out of Hell when his superiors told me I was too far gone to be saved?"  
  
"I made a decision-"  
  
"Then make another one!" Bela yelled, taking a moment to calm herself before she walked up to place a hand on Castiel's shoulder; as frustrated as she was with Castiel, getting angry at him wouldn't help.  
  
"Look," she said, suddenly able to believe that she was genuinely trying to appeal to an angel's conscience after her own past, "you once came to me to ask for help when you were making a difficult decision; all I'm asking you to do _now_ is have the same faith in me that you did back then, and think about what you're being asked to do."  
  
Castiel stared at Bela for a moment, his expression as unreadable as ever, before he nodded.  
  
"Continue your research into the Seals and Lilith," he said at last. "I will… investigate."  
  
Bela wished that she had more faith in the angel as he vanished once again.  
  
She had trusted the Castiel who had pulled her out of Hell against orders and expressed doubt about destroying a town to stop a Seal, but this Castiel, who went along with a plan to keep Dean locked up until the final fight with Lilith and no hints about how they were meant to stop her…  
  
He made her worried.  
  
Actually, now that Bela thought about it, this whole situation made her worried.  
  
Even after everything they'd done since she and Dean were rescued from Hell, the angels had still lost sixty-five seals; even if there were over six hundred possibilities, surely the angels could have done a better job at protecting them if she and the Winchesters could save three?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In advance, I won't be looking at Sam's time with Ruby or Dean's time in the Green Room; they're basically the same as canon, except for Dean not talking with Castiel, and I'm sure you'd all rather I get straight to the real meat of this episode as Lucifer rises…


	43. Inspiring Angels

Bela still had no idea if her last conversation with Castiel had gone well or not, even as she continued to desperately work her way through Bobby's books to find some means of tracking Sam or Dean. She already knew that the last spell they'd used in this situation wouldn't work, and she still hadn't heard back from Deanna after leaving the older woman a message.

A part of her wondered if Deanna just hadn't received the message, but she pushed that thought aside; the Winchesters' grandmother might be from the seventies, but she'd adapted to modern technology easily enough.

The thing she didn't understand was how they could be this close to the endgame after only a matter of months. She appreciated that the angels had a lot of seals to keep track of, and she could accept the idea that some of Castiel's superiors had felt that she wasn't worth saving even if she had been a seal, but if they knew about the Seals, they should have been able to predict the most likely candidates…

Suddenly, Bela was struck by one of the rules she'd always lived by when carrying out any number of her old cons; _when you have to tell a lie to win people over, give it just enough truth to make it convincing_.

They knew that there were too many seals for the angels to keep track of every single one of them, but they also knew of at least one case where the angels as a whole had been willing to let a Seal be broken even when they had a chance to stop it…

Could it be that… the angels _wanted_ the Seals to be broken?

Bela didn't even stop to think; grabbing the nearest blank paper she could find, she scrawled a hurried note to Bobby for when he got back from following up his latest lead before running into the back yard to grab the first working car she could find and start driving.

"Deanna," she said, setting her phone to loudspeaker and praying to whatever was above the angels that they weren't paying attention to her full-time, "meet me at your husband's compound and start working on anything relating to anti-angel wards; I think they _want_ the Seals to be broken-"

"You are correct."

Bela let out an uncharacteristic scream at the sudden voice behind her, her mood only slightly calmed as she registered Castiel's face in the rear-view mirror.

"Excuse me?" she said, pulling over as soon as she found a suitably-sized space; no matter what traffic laws she might be breaking, this was too important for her not to give her full attention to the conversation. "You _knew_ about this?"

"I was only informed of the full details when I was recalled to Heaven-"

"Don't," Bela said, uninterested in hearing whatever Castiel had to say in his defence; she'd recognised that he was more distant after he returned to Jimmy Novak's body compared to what he'd been before, but that didn't mean she had to listen to this kind of evidence. "This is the end of the world, Castiel; saying that you only learned the truth about your superiors' plans in the last few days doesn't excuse the fact that you've been _lying_ to us about something so big there isn't even a _word_ for it."

"I was not lying when I initially spoke to you," Castiel said. "And I do regret that it has come to this, but this plan is long foretold-"

"To _hell_ with the plan!" Bela yelled, slamming her hand against the horn as she turned to glare at the angel more directly. "You are talking about the _Apocalypse_ , Castiel; people are going to _die_! There isn't a grand plan here; this is just your superiors deciding that we aren't worth it!"

"What is worth saving?" Castiel asked. "I see nothing but pain in this world. Your past suffering, Dean's guilt, the losses that Deanna and Bobby have suffered, Sam's conflicting rage over what he believes he must do… in paradise, all is forgiven-"

"Because there isn't any _point_ to it up there!" Bela countered. "If we have to commit mass murder to get to paradise, we don't _deserve_ it, Castiel; can't you understand that?"

She was about to start talking about what anything she'd done in the last few months was worth if they were going to either get torn apart by Lucifer or allowed to ascend to heaven by the angels, but then another argument came to mind.

"Can I just ask you one question?" she said, looking at him with a firm stare. "If you ever believed all that, why did you save me?"

Castiel simply blinked as he looked at her, a slight tilt to the head the only indication that he was thinking about her question.

"I mean, if me getting tortured and turned into a demon would have meant that a Seal would be broken and Lucifer gets that bit closer to getting out, wouldn't it have made more _sense_ to leave me in Hell?" Bela asked. "You chose to save me even when your superiors told you I wasn't worth it, so why did you do it?"

Castiel simply stared at her in silence, a contemplative expression on his face.

"You decided that _I_ was worth saving," Bela continued, almost unable to believe the words coming from her as she looked at the angel. "If I'm worth saving after everything I've done… how can you condemn the rest of the world?"

"If I do what you ask…" Castiel said after a further few moments of silence, his tone hesitant even if the fact that he was speaking at all gave Bela hope, "we will all be hunted."

"Believe me, I never thought I'd say this myself," Bela said, staring solemnly at the angel, "but if anything's worth dying for, this is it. You can be a good soldier, or you can be a good _man_ , and I know which one I'd prefer right now."

Castiel stared silently at Bela for a moment before he vanished again, leaving Bela to take a deep breath and stare anxiously up at the sky.

Whoever or whatever was up there above the angels, she had to hope that they were going to give her and the Winchesters a fighting chance.

She still had no way of finding Sam and Dean, but she could leave another message for Bobby en route, and once she get to Deanna, she had to believe that they would be able to find something to keep the last Seal locked or put Lucifer …

* * *

When Bela Talbot was half-way to the Campbell Compound, she could never have guessed that, half-way across the country, the final Seal had just been broken.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about skipping that moment, but there was never going to be anything for Bela to contribute at that stage of the last confrontation with Lilith and Ruby that would have made a real impact on the wider plot, so I thought it more important to get her and Deanna to a point where they take more decisive action to aid the brothers when things get rough.


	44. When the Devil Walks the Earth

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise that this chapter isn't as long as it could have been, but at this point, it made more sense for Bela and Deanna to pursue one line of inquiry while Dean, Sam and Bobby tackled another; there will be more interaction between them once they've established Dean and Sam's roles in the Apocalypse, but for the moment, the Winchesters are acting independently of the Talbot/Campbell duo and the only change to canon is that they have the Colt but would prefer to find something they can use that isn't dependent on them confronting Lucifer when he's in a vessel

Bela was just putting away the latest in a long series of disappointing books when she heard her cellphone start to ring. She didn't even register how quickly she'd dived for the small object until it was already in her hand, and by that point she didn't care how it might have looked as she dived for the source of the distinctive ringtone.

"Dean?" she said, anxiously holding the phone to her ear, unconcerned about the antique books now scattered around her desk. "Where are you? What happened? Where's-?"

" _We blew it_."

Bela froze.

Considering what they'd been facing before Dean and Sam vanished and what she'd learned since then, there was only one thing Dean could mean by _that_ statement.

"Lucifer's out?" she asked, lowering her voice to a whisper without thinking about it. "How?"

" _Well, turns out we were more right about Ruby than even I thought_ ," Dean said bitterly. " _Not only was she on the demons' side all along, she was playing Sam so that he'd break the last Seal himself_."

"What?" Bela asked, suddenly torn between wanting to know how Sam was and being afraid to ask; considering Dean's reaction when he learned that he'd broken the first Seal months after the fact, Sam definitely wouldn't be coping well with the knowledge that he'd broken the last. "I thought he was working with her to kill Lilith?"

" _Turns out Lilith_ was _the last damn Seal; killing her where Sam found her broke the last lock that was keeping Lucifer stuck in his box_ ," Dean explained. " _And before you ask, Sam and I have no idea how we survived him coming out like that; one minute… well, right now we're stuck with some goddamn rental, and I just want to try and track down Cas before we get on with the business of sticking Lucifer back where he came from_."

"Right…" Bela said, deciding not to ask about Castiel right now; if Dean didn't know where he was right now, Bela would prefer to have a few more moments of ignorance before Dean had to dispel them. "I'm with your grandmother in her old compound at the moment; should we get back to Sioux Falls?"

" _No, stay there for the moment; two groups doing the brainwork with different books can't hurt, after all_ ," Dean said, his tone softening slightly as he spoke. " _Besides… I'd feel better if I_ knew _you were somewhere else right now_."

After everything that she'd done to them before going to Hell, it still amazed Bela that Dean could feel anything for her right now beyond contempt. The words might sound harsh, but the tone he delivered them in made it clear that all Dean was thinking about was her safety, even if there probably wasn't anywhere completely safe if the Devil himself tried to attack her.

"OK," she said, nodding solemnly over the phone. "I'll let Deanna know and we'll work out if there's anything here; just… let us know if you find anything."

" _Course_ ," Dean replied. " _Take care_."

"You too," Bela said, ending the call before taking a deep breath to calm herself.

Lucifer might be out, but Sam and Dean were alive and the world hadn't ended yet; there had to be time to find some kind of solution before it all went to Hell…

* * *

"Anything?" Bela asked, looking up as Deanna walked into the area that Bela thought of as the 'library room', only for the woman's solemn expression to answer that question before she had to speak.  
  
"Nothing," the Winchesters' grandmother said grimly, indicating the book she'd been reading as Bela noticed a few flecks of black paint on her shirt. "A few things about those Enochian wards Castiel mentioned, but apart from keeping Lucifer out, that doesn't do us much good."  
  
"It's more than we had," Bela smiled, trying to sound more optimistic about it than she felt.  
  
Having a secure place to plan would help, but it would be more useful if they had some idea what they could actually do against the devil. Right now, the only weapons they had that even might do anything to Lucifer were the angel sword that Bela had received from Castiel after killing Uriel, and the Colt itself, and trying to get close enough to use those against Lucifer would be dangerous even if they knew where he was.  
  
Bela was trying not to think about the fact that if killing Luficer was simple he wouldn't have been left in the Cage in the first place…  
  
"Oh God…" she groaned, slumping over in her chair.  
  
"Problem?" Deanna asked. "Aside from the obvious, I mean."  
  
"No, that's it," Bela said, looking up from her hands with a brief smile. "Heard from Bobby?"  
  
"I called him earlier, but he just said that he was working on a few things; it's probably best that we cover different angles right now," Deanna noted.  
  
"Probably a good idea-" Bela began, before her ringing phone cut her off mid-sentence, the semi-retired thief grabbing the phone automatically. "Yes?"  
  
" _Cas is dead_."  
  
"Oh no…" Bela said, eyes widening in horror. "How?"  
  
" _Looks like the archangel blew him up_ ," Dean continued. " _When we got to Chuck's to check on 'em, he found one of Cas's molars in his hair_."  
  
"Oh," Bela said, lost for anything better to say.  
  
" _Brighter note_ ," Dean continued, in a manner that didn't make it sound that much brighter, " _we can confirm that Lucifer's still basically an angel, even if he's the biggest one on the board right now; some dick of an angel who called himself Zachariah showed up and mentioned that the big bad needs a vessel to do anything, so we might have a shot if we can find something before he gets a suit_."  
  
"It's… a plan," Bela agreed, fully aware that it was a stretch to assume they could find anything to hurt an angel outside a vessel when Pamela lost her eyes just trying to see Castiel's natural state. "Where are you now?"  
  
" _Hiding out_ ," Dean said simply. " _Sam's set up a few hex bags to keep anyone out at this end, but we're still working on finding anything more than generic bad signs like all these tornado reports; how 'bout you_?"  
  
"Deanna's tried to adapt a few of the angelic wards that you mentioned during that Reaper case while we do our research," Bela said. "Obviously we can't _know_ if they're keeping anything out, and we haven't found anything yet, but it's worth a shot."  
  
" _Plus, nobody's going to care if you graffiti your own walls_ ," Dean replied, sounding like he was smiling at the other end. " _Keep it up; we'll touch base if we find anything_."  
  
"Beyond trying to find the devil and shoot him with the Colt, right?"  
  
" _Or stab him with that sword you got from Uriel_ ," Dean agreed with Bela's earlier thoughts. " _Just… keep looking; Sam and I still have a few things to check here_."  
  
"Good luck," Bela said before Dean ended the call.  
  
It was slow progress, and the loss of Castiel was a definite blow, but Bela had to focus on what mattered right now; Lucifer wasn't going to give them time to grieve before he started attacking them…

* * *

As she drove into the town that Dean had identified as his and Sam's current location, Bela wasn't sure what she was expecting to find. When Sam had called to reveal that they had learned that Lucifer could be defeated by the sword of the Archangel Michael, Bela had been so relieved to learn that they had a weapon that she hadn't immediately questioned why Sam was so uncomfortable talking about that issue, focusing more on getting to the Winchesters so that they could pool their resources.  
  
Divide and conquer had been a good strategy when they didn't know what they were looking for, but now that they had something to focus on, the only challenge was finding anything about the Michael Sword before it was too late.  
  
Bela was just starting to turn a corner when she saw a distinctive black car driving down another street, prompting her to turn around and start to follow it; if the Winchesters were going somewhere other than the hotel, she wanted to know what they had found out. Deanna briefly wondered what had happened, but then she saw the car and sat back to wait for her travelling companion to reach their destination. After a few moments, the Impala stopped in front of a hospital, Deanna and Bela getting out of the car just as Dean and Sam did the same.  
  
"Wha- Bela?" Dean said, looking at the former thief in surprise.  
  
"Grandma?" Sam smiled at Deanna. "What are you doing here?"  
  
"We thought you might want some… help," Deanna said, looking thoughtfully at the two Winchesters, noting their grim expressions. "What happened?"  
  
"We got a lead from Chuck on what he thought was the location of the Michael Sword," Dean explained.  
  
"The Michael Sword?" Deanna asked. "As in, the weapon of the Archangel Michael? The blade that ensured that Lucifer was banished to Hell when he rebelled and fell in the first place?"  
  
"Close," Dean confirmed. "Chuck's vision said that it was in one of Dad's old storage lockers, but when we got there, turned out that Zack planted the damn vision to lure us in."  
  
"Zack?" Deanna asked.  
  
"As in Zachariah?"  
  
"Who?" the older woman asked, gaze shifting from her grandsons to her current partner.  
  
"Another angel," Bela explained. "Castiel mentioned him once; he's apparently the commander of Castiel's garrison."  
  
"And he's the biggest dick we've seen yet," Dean confirmed. "I mean, seriously, he took away Sam's lungs and gave me stage-four stomach cancer just to try and get me to go along with his little plan."  
  
" _What_?" Deanna said, looking at her grandsons in outrage.  
  
"Why would he even _do_ that?" Bela asked. "I mean, what could you have that he- hold on a minute…"  
  
"Yeah; turns out the Michael Sword is meant to refer to Michael's _Vessel_ rather than his _weapon_ ," Dean shrugged. "And guess who's the lucky son of a bitch who got that job?"  
  
"So… you're Michael's Vessel?" Deanna asked, looking at her namesake in surprise. "As in, if Michael wants to fight Lucifer on Earth, you have to give your consent to let him… use you?"  
  
"Pretty much," Dean nodded. "Sounds good on paper, but considering that millions are guaranteed to die no matter who wins and we've got no definites that Michael can stick Luci back in the box, I told Zach where he could stick it and then he got ugly."  
  
"Right…" Deanna nodded uncertainly at her grandson. "So… how did you get away?"  
  
"That was Cas."  
  
" _Cas_?" Bela said, smiling in relief at the first bit of good news she'd heard since Sam escaped. "He's alive?"  
  
"Oh yeah; not clear on how he came back, but he stabbed Zach's hench-angels and then went on to force the asshole to put us back together and back off," Dean smiled, before he rubbed at his chest. "'course, then he stuck some kind of Enochian sigils on us…"  
  
"On you?"  
  
"On our ribs, apparently," Sam said, rubbing his chest in the same awkward manner as Dean. "He says they'll hide us from every angel in Heaven; I'm thinking of getting an X-ray done so we can see what he actually did…"  
  
"On the topic of… doing stuff…" Bela said, looking awkwardly over at Sam, "now that Ruby's gone, how are you doing with… well…?"  
  
"The demon blood?" Sam finished, smiling awkwardly at her. "Actually, I'm not too bad; I think whatever put me and Dean out of harm's way also saved me from my… well, my need for the stuff."  
  
"Good," Deanna said, walking up to Sam and slapping him sharply on the face. " _That_ is for being so stupid as to _trust_ a _demon_!"  
  
"But-" Sam began, before his grandmother pulled him into a hug.  
  
"And _this_ is for still being alive," she said, pressing her face into his shoulder. "God… I could have _lost_ you…"  
  
"It… it's OK," Sam said, awkwardly patting Deanna on the shoulder as he looked at Dean and Bela's amused grins behind the older woman, evidently amused at Sam's uncertainty about this kind of physical contact.  
  
"So are you just here for those X-rays?" Bela asked, only for Dean's grim expression to answer that question. "Who's hurt?"  
  
"Bobby," Dean said grimly. "Some demon managed to jump into him before he got here, and then…"  
  
"Is he all right?"  
  
"He stabbed himself with the damn knife _while_ he was possessed; we've got no idea how he is," Dean said grimly. "Got him here to get checked out after every other demon in the place cut and ran, but then we had to go and run down Chuck's lead, and… well, here we are."  
  
"Oh," Bela said, lost for anything better to say to this news.  
  
She had to believe that the knife hadn't killed Bobby if Sam and Dean had brought him to hospital, but stabbing himself with a demon-killing knife while he was possessed by one…  
  
She doubted the results would be encouraging.

* * *

"'Unlikely to walk again'?" Bobby repeated with an indignant glare at the doctor who'd delivered the news. "Why, you snot-nosed son of a bitch! Wait till I get out of this bed! I'll use my game leg and kick your friggin' ass! Yeah, you better run!"  
  
As the doctor retreated from the angered trucker, Bobby looked over at the other four hunters with a scornful glare. "You believe that yahoo?"  
  
"Screw him," Dean said briefly. "You'll be fine."  
  
"So," Deanna said, looking uncomfortably around the room, "now that we have Heaven looking for my grandson to act as their general and Hell has the devil loose on Earth once more… what do we do?"  
  
"Well…" Bobby sighed, looking solemnly at the other four. "We save as many as we can for as long as we can, I guess. It's bad. Whoever wins, heaven or hell, we're boned."  
  
"What if we win?" Dean put in, as the other four turned to look at him. "I'm serious. I mean, screw the angels and the demons and their crap apocalypse. Hell, they want to fight a war, they can find their own planet. This one's ours, and I say they get the hell off it. We take 'em all on. We kill the devil. Hell, we even kill Michael if we have to. But we do it our own damn selves."  
  
"And how are we supposed to do all this, genius?" Bobby asked.  
  
"We _do_ have an angel-killing blade and the Colt," Bela pointed out with a smile.  
  
"Exactly," Dean nodded. "Not great odds, but if we can track that asshole down, as least we've got something we can use on the bastard."  
  
"You are nine kinds of crazy, boy," Bobby noted with a grim smile.  
  
"It's been said," Dean shrugged, reaching over to pat Bobby on the shoulder. "Listen, you stay on the mend. We'll see you in a bit."  
  
"Sam?" Bobby said, just as the Winchesters moved towards the door of his room, looking at the youngest Winchester with an awkward smile. "I was awake. I know what I said back there. I just want you to know that...that _was_ the demon talking. I ain't cutting you out, boy. Not ever."  
  
"Thanks, Bobby," Sam sighed after a long pause.  
  
"You're welcome," Bobby replied with a grim smile. "I deserve a damn medal for this, but… you're welcome."  
  
Bela and Deanna didn't know what precisely Bobby and Sam were talking about, but looking at the evident relief on Sam's face, they both knew that they wouldn't press the issue; with all the tension facing them right now, it was best to just let Sam enjoy some kind of positive news.

* * *

"So," Sam said, after the four of them were back by their respective cars, "if we've got the Colt-"  
  
"What?" Dean said, looking sharply over at Sam. "You really think we can just go out there and _shoot_ the Devil himself in the freakin' head?"  
  
"It's got to be worth a shot-"  
  
"And how are we meant to find the bastard and get that shot?" Dean countered. "Seriously, I may have said a bunch of crap for Bobby's benefit, but even if we fight to the last man, we all know we don't stand a snowball's chance."  
  
"That's not all of it, is it?" Deanna said, looking pointedly at Dean.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I'm your grandmother, Dean; just because I wasn't there when you were growing up doesn't mean I haven't seen that expression on your grandfather and mother's faces when they were alive," Deanna clarified. "What else do you have to say?"  
  
"It's…" Dean began, before he sighed and turned to Sam. "You know, I can't just keep pretending that everything's all right, because it's not, and it's never going to be. You chose a demon over your own brother-"  
  
"When he was under the influence and she was doing everything she could to play him-!" Bela cut in.  
  
"No," Sam shook his head. "The blood made me want it, but that didn't mean I had to listen to what Ruby had to say… but you have to know that I would give _anything_ to take it all back…"  
  
"I know you would," Dean said. "And I know how sorry you are, I do. But, man… you were the one that I depended on the most. And you let me down in ways that I can't even…"  
  
As Dean looked silently at his brother, Bela almost wished that she wasn't as close to the Winchesters as she had become over the past year; seeing them so divided like this wouldn't have hurt this much before she went to Hell.  
  
Bobby might have made it clear he wasn't going to cut himself out of their lives, but as Dean admitted that he wasn't sure that he and Sam could ever be what they were, Bela wondered if the Winchesters would be working together for much longer if Dean couldn't forgive this last turn of events.


	45. Looking for God

"And this is on your _ribs_?" Bela asked, staring at Dean's X-ray in surprise.

She appreciated that she'd seen more impressive things in the supernatural world, but the idea that Castiel had carved all this onto Sam and Dean's ribs without actually needed to 'see' the bones…

She wasn't sure if she should consider it cool or disturbing, but either way it was incredible to consider what Castiel was capable of.

"Looks like it," Dean nodded at her, before glancing at the room behind them, Bobby sitting silently in his wheelchair as Deanna sat beside him, trying to offer some kind of moral support even if she had no real idea what to say to her friend. "Any change?"

"Not since you last asked," Bela replied. She appreciated that the Winchesters were used to injuries that they could get over after only a few days' rest- even broken limbs would probably only phase them for as long as it took the bone to reset- but it seemed like they needed more time to recognise that Bobby couldn't just get over the loss of his legs in a few days.

"Damnit," Dean groaned, sitting down in the nearest chair as he stared at the ceiling in frustration.

"This was never going to be-"

" _I know that_!" Dean snapped, only to calm down before Bela had to do more than glare at him. "Sorry 'bout that… guess I'm still a bit on edge…"

"After everything that's happened?" Bela countered, aware that the joke was weak but lost for anything better to say. "I never would have guessed it."

"Hey," Sam said, walking up to join them before he noticed the X-ray in Bela's hand. "Is that…?"

"Yeah," Dean nodded at his brother, handing him the image of his 'tattooed' ribs.

"Holy crap," Sam said, turning the X-rays over as though they would make more sense the other way around.

"Hey, Cas carved you one too," Dean said, just as Sam's phone rang.

"Hello…" the younger Winchester began before his eyes widened in surprise. "Castiel?"

"What a coincidence," Bela said, trying to hide her smile at the thought of seeing the angel again even before Sam mentioned their current location. Glancing up a few moments later, she wasn't entirely surprised to see Castiel walking along the corridor leading from the hospital entrance; he must have arrived at the door and made his way through the hospital.

"Cell phone, Cas?" Dean said

"Really? Since when do angels need to reach out and touch someone?"

"You're hidden from angels now; all angels," Castiel clarified. "I was unaware that you were with Bela or your grandmother, or I would have-"

"Enough foreplay," Bobby cut in from his room. "Get over here and lay your damn hands on."

Bela was initially surprised that none of them had thought of getting in touch with Castiel as their first choice once they had learned about Bobby's injury, but a brief glance at the angel confirmed that it wouldn't be that simple even before he told them that he couldn't do that.

"Say again?" Bobby said, turning in his chair to face Castiel from his room.

"I'm cut off from Heaven and much of its power," Castiel explained. "Certain things I can do, certain things I can't."

"You need Heaven's power to heal?" Bela asked. "Why would you be cut off like that… unless…?"

"All angels are automatically part of the celestial host, but drawing on the power of Heaven itself makes it easier for our brethren to find our locations," the angel explained, his tone grim. "Considering… current circumstances, eliminating my connection to Heaven seemed like the most sensible option."

"In other words, you lost your mojo just in time to get me stuck in this trap the rest of my life?" Bobby said, looking indignantly at the angel.

"I'm sorry," the angel said.

"Shove it up your ass," Bobby said, turning back to the window.

"At least he's talking now," Dean shrugged, smiling at Bobby's biting response even as he turned to look at Castiel.

"I don't have much time," the angel said grimly. "We need to talk."

"About anything in particular?" Bela asked.

"Your plan to kill Lucifer."

"Yeah," Dean confirmed. "You want to help?"

"No," Castiel said bluntly. "It's foolish. It can't be done."

"Well, _that's_ encouraging…" Bela said, shaking her head in frustration, making a mental note to talk with Castiel about the benefits of trying to act positive even in hopeless situations. "Even with the Colt?"

"The Colt depends on your ability to catch Lucifer off-guard in a vessel, and even then I offer no guarantees, and he is far too powerful for the blades you have acquired to do more than injure him for a moment."

"Hold on," Deanna said, looking uncomfortably at Castiel. "I'm sorry if this… well, don't take this the wrong way, but if you've been weakened because you're cut off from Heaven after you… fell… wouldn't Lucifer be in the same kind of state that you're in?"

" _No_ ," Castiel said firmly, a cold glare on his face as he looked at the Winchesters' grandmother, before he seemed to take in what she had said and calmed down. "Lucifer is an archangel, and he would have anticipated the consequences of being banished from Heaven when he made the decision to rebel to provide himself with alternative sources of power; my own actions were more… impulsive… and I do not possess the natural reserves that he would have."

"Fair enough," Deanna acknowledged grimly.

"But I believe I have the solution," Castiel said, putting her question to the side as he looked at the rest of the group. "There is someone besides Michael strong enough to take on Lucifer. Strong enough to stop the apocalypse."

"Who's that?" Sam asked.

"The one who resurrected me and put you on that airplane," Castiel said, as the three hunters exchanged uncertain glances. "The one who began everything. God. I'm going to find God."

"Ah," Bela said, looking around for a moment before she led the other four into Bobby's room; regardless of his mood, she had a feeling the older man needed to hear this, and whatever Castiel had to say was definitely not a conversation they could have in public.

"So… you're going to find God?" Dean asked, looking at the angel uncertainly.

"He isn't in Heaven; he has to be somewhere," Castiel said solemnly.

"Try New Mexico; I hear he's on a tortilla," Dean countered, Bela privately groaning at Dean's joke as Castiel missed the point as always. "Listen, Cas, even if there is a God, he's either dead- and that's the generous theory-"

"He is out there, Dean."

"Or he's up and kicking and doesn't give a rat's ass about any of us," Dean finished, ignoring Castiel's glare. "I mean, look around you, man. The world is in the toilet. We are literally at the end of days here, and he's off somewhere drinking booze out of a coconut. All right?"

"Enough," Castiel said grimly. "This is not a theological issue; it's strategic. With God's help, we can win."

"You think this can work?" Bela asked, looking uncertainly at the angel.

"I have to try," Castiel said solemnly.

Even if Bela had her own doubts about this situation, she had to admire Castiel's grim faith.

"It's-" Dean began, before a firm squeeze to his arm from his grandmother stopped whatever he might be about to say. Bela didn't know what Dean might have been about to say, but she doubted that Castiel would appreciate it.

"You didn't have to come all the way here just to tell us your travel plans," Deanna noted. "What is it you want?"

"I did come for something," Castiel clarified. "An amulet."

"An amulet?" Bobby repeated. "What kind?"

"Very rare, very powerful. It burns hot in God's presence; it'll help me find him."

"A God EMF?" Sam asked, surprised at the discovery even as Castiel nodded in confirmation.

"Well, I don't know what you're talking about," Bobby shrugged, at least occupied by something other than his back. "I got nothing like that."

"I know," Castiel said, looking over at Dean and the amulet around his neck. "You don't."

"What, this?" Dean asked, looking at it in surprise.

"May I borrow it?"

Looking at the amulet for a moment, Dean finally sighed and nodded, reaching around his neck to pull it over his head and hand it on to the angel.

"Don't lose it," he said solemnly, as the angel slipped it into his pocket. "Oh, and while you're here, maybe sigil up Bobby, Bela and Gran?"

"Of course," Castiel said, walking over to place his hands on Deanna and Bela's sides. For a moment, Bela felt a sharp moment of heat over her ribs before it vanished, Castiel walking over to Bobby and repeating the motion as the scrapyard owner winced.

"You can do that and can't do legs?" the older man noted grimly.

"It is always easier to take than to give," Castiel said, shaking his head at that solemn truth of the world before he looked back at Dean. "I'll be in touch."

With those words, he vanished once again, leaving the five hunters to look awkwardly at each other.

Bela knew that the Winchesters had made a reputation for dealing with tricky demons and monsters over the years, but it was one thing to be facing a powerful opponent and another thing altogether to be facing a foe this powerful that a close ally had confirmed they _couldn't_ defeat.

"So… what now?" Deanna asked at last. "Look online for anything that might be a sign of Lucifer's presence?"

"After the news last night, might be easier working out what _isn't_ a sign right now…" Bobby shook his head in frustration. "Still, can't hurt; might as well get some readin' done now that I'll be in a chair for the rest of my life."

It was a small step, and the tone he said it in wasn't exactly encouraging, but at least Bobby was showing signs of wanting to do more than sit around and brood on what had happened to him.


	46. Demon Town

Taking in the abandoned town around them, Bela wondered if this was as good an idea as she'd thought at first.

When Bobby had received that call from Rufus for help dealing with a demon attack, it had seemed like a good opportunity to help Sam and Dean get over their immediate issues by facing a more conventional threat rather than an Apocalypse-level crisis, but she was starting to worry that this was a bit bigger than she'd anticipated. Demons might have attacked on a large scale in some of the stories she'd heard in the past, even if she'd never been involved in anything this big before, but there was still something unnerving about the idea that they were confident enough to keep an entire town contained.

"This is the only road in or out," Dean noted, the Impala parked on the edge of the shattered bridge that was the only means of accessing the town they had been directed to.

"No signal," Sam put in, indicating his cellphone.

"Well," Deanna shrugged, "at least we know Rufus wasn't exaggerating the problem here."

"And now we're hiking into this mess while leaving Baby out here," Dean noted, looking in exasperation between the bridge and the Impala. "This sucks."

"Nobody said it was going to be an easy situation," Bela noted, as she opened the car's trunk and started handing out weapons. "All we can do is try our best to help out."

"Yeah," Dean said, hesitating for a moment before he put the Colt into his inner jacket pocket. "Question is if there's anything we can do about it…"

With no idea what to say to help Dean get over that particularly bleak mood, Bela decided to focus on the immediate challenge. Once the four of them had gathered their weapons, they made their way carefully over the bridge, watching their balance until they reached the other side.

As the four of them advanced into the town with no sign of any other people, Bela became increasingly unnerved at the sheer emptiness of this area. If Rufus had been able to make a call even a few hours ago, he must have felt that there was still a chance to save this town from whatever was happening to it, but this place looked like it had been abandoned on very short notice, which raised some worrying questions about what might have happened between that call and their arrival.

As Dean and his grandmother checked a sporting goods store, Sam and Bela examined some of the abandoned cars in the street, but none of the cars gave any clear indication what had happened to their original drivers. A still-working radio suggesting that it hadn't happened too long ago, and a working sprinkler in a nearby garden reinforced the impression that this place had been abandoned in a hurry, but that didn't help them work out what might have caused any of this. Sam turned off the radio to give them one less distraction, but the empty town still left Bela torn between hoping they had and hadn't arrived too late; the thought of facing something that could do all this so quickly…

"Boys," Deanna said, her voice low as she indicated an abandoned baby-stroller next to the open door of a silver car, along with a great deal of blood. Dean sneaked over to take a closer look, but after confirming that there was nothing there that could help them work out if the baby was alive or dead, they continued on. They had just turned around another corner when she sound of a gun cocking behind them brought Bela to a quick halt, but when Dean turned to look at the new arrival, he quickly lowered his gun.

"Ellen?" Sam asked, looking at the older woman dressed in a plaid shirt in surprise.

"Hello, boys," the woman said, taking in the group before lowering her gun and walking up to Dean, throwing a bottle of water in his face just as Dean was about to ask what was going on.

"We're us," Dean said, after waiting a moment to confirm that what was presumably holy water was doing nothing to him.

"Right," Ellen said, glancing over at the other two women, neither of whom had met her before. "And these are?"

"Bela Talbot," Bela said, smiling awkwardly at the other woman, praying that Dean and Sam hadn't mentioned her to this woman before now. "And this is Deanna Campbell; she's…"

"I'm their grandmother," Deanna smiled at Ellen as she indicated the Winchester brothers. "I heard about you from Bobby Singer; a pleasure to meet you, Mrs Harvelle."

"Grandmother," Ellen repeated, looking bluntly at Deanna.

"Yes."

"You're _my_ age and you're these boys' _grandmother_."

"Long story involvin' time-travelling angels with freaky timing," Dean shrugged, willing to give Ellen that much despite the severity of the situation. "We can talk 'bout it later; what matters right now is what we're dealing with _here_."

"Follow me," Ellen said, indicating a nearby church as she led the group to the building. "Glad you're back, but seriously, the can of whoopass I should open on you…"

"Excuse me?" Dean said, even as they walked over a devil's trap drawn on the threshold of the church.

"You can't pick up a phone?" Ellen looked pointedly at him. "What are you, allergic to giving me peace of mind? I got to find out that you're alive from Rufus?"

"It's… been a weird time," Dean said awkwardly. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Yeah, well, you better be," Ellen said firmly. "Put me on speed dial for next time, kid."

"I'll make sure of it," Deanna smiled over at the other woman.

"Probably do these idiots some good to have some other female roles in their lives," Ellen grinned in response before she looked at Bela. "Can't believe _you're_ here after the crap you pulled…"

"Things happened," Dean and Bela said simultaneously, prompting surprised glances from the rest of the group before Ellen sighed and waved them along, clearly deciding to accept the issue rather than press it.

"What's even going on here?" Bela asked, wanting to get the topic back to something at least technically more comfortable.

"More than I can handle alone."

"How many demons are we talking here?" Deanna put in.

"Pretty much the whole town, minus the dead people and these guys," Ellen said, pausing at a closed door and looking at the new arrivals. "So this is it, right? End times?"

"We're… working on making sure things don't go that far," Bela said awkwardly. Looking at the former thief for a moment, Ellen nodded in understanding before she knocked on the door, introducing herself and prompting a peephole to open before the door was opened itself. On the other side of the door was a small group of thirteen people, clearly civilians, in varying stages of assembling weapons or practicing Devil's Traps, as well as a couple studying thick leather books.

"This is Sam, Dean, Bela and Deanna," Ellen said, her voice clear as she addressed the group who were now looking anxiously at her. "They're hunters; here to help."

"You're all hip to this whole demon thing?" the man who'd opened the door said, looking uncertainly at the Winchesters.

"Yeah," Dean nodded. "Are you?"

"My wife's eyes turned black," another man said, studying a ring on his right hand. "She came at me with a brick. Kind of makes you embrace the paranormal."

"All right," Dean looked at Ellen, "catch us up."

"I doubt I know much more than you," Ellen said, shaking her head in frustration. "Rufus called, said he was in town investigating omens; all of a sudden, the whole town was possessed. Me and Jo were nearby-"

"You're hunting with Jo?" Dean cut in.

"Yeah, for a while now," Ellen confirmed before continuing, although Bela made a note to ask why that information surprised Dean later on. "We got here, and the place… well, the place was like you see it. Couldn't find Rufus, then me and Jo got separated. I was out looking when I found you."

"We'll find her," Dean nodded.

"Her?" Deanna asked.

"Jo's my daughter," Ellen clarified, nodding at the other woman in understanding.

"Either way, we can't just… leave these people here," Sam noted, indicating the group around them. "We have to get them out."

"It's not that easy," Ellen said grimly. "I've been trying; we already made a run for it once."

"What happened?" Bela asked.

"There used to be twenty of us."

"Well, there's five of us _now_ -" Dean began, after a quick count confirmed that there was now half that number in the room not counting the new arrivals.

"You don't know what it's like out there," Ellen noted. "Demons are everywhere; we won't be able to cover everybody."

"We could try and get more guns," Bela suggested. "If we can give everyone salt rounds, and keep the pregnant woman in the middle of the group…"

"It's worth a shot," Dean nodded. "We passed a sporting goods store on the way in; I bet they got guns."

"All right," Sam said, as the new arrivals dropped their bags. "Ellen, Deanna, you stay here and hold the fort; Dean, Bela and I can grab the guns."

"What about-?" Ellen began.

"If Jo and Rufus are out there, we'll bring them back," Sam affirmed, as he turned for the door.

"Uh…" Dean began, looking awkwardly at his brother. "Maybe just Bela and I should-"

"No."

"Excuse me?" Dean looked at Bela in surprise.

"Dean," Bela looked at him with a sense of fond exasperation, "I appreciate that things are… difficult now, but you're not going to get over those issues if you don't at least _try_ to give Sam a chance."

"Difficult?" Dean and Ellen said at the same time, Dean incredulous and Ellen curious.

"Things happened," Bela said, hoping that Ellen in particular wouldn't ask for more details right now; if they were protecting these people, it was important to show a united front. "The details aren't important; what _is_ important is that Deanna and Ellen have experience at teaching people about this kind of thing, so it's best to divide this group and play to our strengths."

Dean glared at her for a moment, as though he was offended by her not taking his side, but he finally nodded in resignation and turned to walk out of the church, followed by his brother and Bela, even as Bela moved to position herself between the two.

The idea of acting as a buffer for Sam and Dean felt wrong on several levels, but even if she could understand why Dean might have issues with Sam's unintended role in Lucifer's release, this wasn't the time for them to argue over a mistake. No matter what Sam had done, he'd never intended any of this to happen, and if Dean could forgive Bela for what she'd done before they came back from Hell, she was going to make sure he realised he couldn't blame his brother for his unwitting role in the Apocalypse.

As the small trio left the basement and headed into the street, Bela wondered if she should be concerned about the idea that she was possibly the most reliable person in this particular trio right now; she could be sure that Dean would save her if she needed it, and she hoped that Sam would do it for her, but she was suddenly uncertain if the boys would act to help _each other_ if the need came up…


	47. The End of War

The more time Bela spent in this town, the more she wondered if coming here had been too much too fast. She'd hoped that getting out to pick up supplies would help ease Dean in particular back into the idea of working with Sam, giving them something simple to do that would help Dean recognise that his brother hadn't changed where it counted, but things had just fallen apart once again as they'd run into another wave of demons while collecting salt. Sam had managed to defeat the problem, but Bela had heard enough to be sure that the younger Winchester was troubled at having to kill again where he'd once been able to exorcise at will, even if he was fully aware of what his powers had been doing to him.

They'd found what they were after easily enough, but if this town was as overrun with demons as Ellen said, there was only so much any of them could do against those numbers without angelic assistance, and with Castiel currently off on his own mission, all they had was Bela's purloined angel blade and anything they could spare from the Colt, which Dean was naturally reluctant to use unless he had to. Sam had gone off with Ellen to try and find Jo and Rufus, but Bela didn't need her experience of psychology to know that Dean still didn't like that idea. Deanna was more focused on supporting the rest of their makeshift 'army' to spare time to support her grandson, falling back into a more explicitly maternal role with surprising ease, which left Bela once again outside her comfort zone as she walked over to where Dean was loading salt into guns.

"He never knew what he was doing."

"Sam?" Dean looked up at her even as his hands automatically continue to load the weapons. "Don't kid yourself; he knew _exactly_ what he was doing-"

"When he started, maybe, but have you ever stopped to think about it was like for him at that point of his life?" Bela noted. "You were dead, and he basically blamed himself for what had happened to you; he was probably desperate for anything that would let him feel like he was making an impact on the demons that took you and John away from him-"

"And that meant he had to work _with_ one of them?"

"That meant he was lost and desperate to try something new because the old ways hadn't worked," Bela noted. She didn't say anything more, but as she stared at Dean, his bitter expression faded to a grim discomfort as though he was registering the implications of her words, wondering about whatever chain of events might have led to her going from the girl who'd made a deal without knowing it to the woman who sold and stole mystical artefacts to make herself rich.

She appreciated that she'd never made her dealings with the supernatural quite as personal as Sam had, but that didn't mean that she couldn't understand how he might have ended up working with Ruby.

"I'm not saying you have to forgive everything," she said, after giving Dean a moment to think about it. "I'm just saying you need to recognise that Sam was in a very difficult situation-"

Further conversation was interrupted when Ellen hurried back into the basement, her anxious expression and the absence of Sam as she slammed the door making it clear that the youngest Winchester was in trouble.

* * *

Sam had no idea how things had become this messed this quickly. He'd been having trouble with the shift in his hunting methods now that he wasn't going to have access to his demon-blood-induced powers to perform automatic exorcisms, even if he recognised that using those powers had consequences he hadn't expected, but he certainly hadn't been expecting that he'd end up being captured by a possessed Jo and Rufus who seemed to be treating _him_ like the demon.  
  
If this was some kind of warped torture they'd come up with, he supposed he could commend the demons on an academic level for trying something different, but since he was just confused rather than hurt, and he definitely wasn't going to start thinking that he _was_ a demon just because he was being treated like one, none of this made any _sense_ … and what was that about that Roger guy adjusting his ring outside the room…?  
  
Looking up as the door opened, he didn't know if he should be worried or relieved when the man he'd seen earlier was the only one who came into the room; this might give him a chance to get some answers, but at the same time, he had some very bad feelings about what this guy was…  
  
"Who the hell are you?" he said, as Roger sat down opposite him and removed his glasses. " _What_ are you?"  
  
"You caught me," the man wearing Roger's face smiled, demonstrating an impromptu dance move. "Popped in to watch. I can hustle like that."  
  
"So, the Roger everyone around here knows, the real Roger?" Sam asked; if he concentrated, maybe he could cast his own exorcism from memory…  
  
"Buried in a ditch," the man wearing Roger's face said with a casual smile, dashing Sam's hope that he was just facing another demon, before closing the door.  
  
"So who are you?" Sam asked again.  
  
"Here's a hint," 'Roger' replied, after moving a chair to a position directly in front of Sam. "I was in Germany. Then in Germany. Then in the Middle East. I was in Darfur when my beeper went off. I'm waiting to hook up with my siblings. I've got three. We're going to have so much fun together."  
  
 _Shit_ , Sam thought, as the final piece fell into place.  
  
He'd never heard of anything to explicitly suggest that they were real, but it wasn't like they were likely to have come out before now…  
  
"I know who you are," he said, glaring at the Horseman of War with a brief smile of acknowledgement. "There aren't any demons in town, are there?"  
  
"Nope; just frightened people ripping each other's throats out," War smirked nonchalantly. "I really haven't had to do too much; I mean, take out a bridge here, lay in a little hallucination there, sit back, pop some corn, watch the show. Frankly, you're _really_ vicious little animals, Sam."  
  
"No," Sam said; he might have faltered himself, but he wasn't going to accept that human beings would go this far without provocation. "You're doing this."  
  
"Please," War shrugged. "Last week, this was Mayberry; now these people are stabbing each other's children-"  
  
"'Cause you made them see demons!" Sam protested.  
  
"Honestly, people don't need a reason to kill each other," War mused. "I mean, you seen the Irish? They're all Irish."  
  
This was what Sam really hated about the more self-aware creatures he encountered; they acted as though they were the natural ones and humanity was somehow at fault for not being the same kind of monster as the rest of them…  
  
"You think I'm a monster," War noted, as Sam rolled his eyes. "I'm jello shots at a party; I just remove inhibitions."  
  
"I'm gonna kill you myself," Sam spat at his enemy.  
  
"Oh, that's adorable," War chuckled, "considering you're my poster boy."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam asked indignantly, fighting down his fear.  
  
"You can't stop thinking about it, ever since you saw it dripping off the blade of that knife."  
  
"You're wrong," Sam said, even as he couldn't help but acknowledge that this thing had a point; he was determined to get over what he had become under Ruby's influence, but he knew from experience with more conventional addictions that the best anyone could say was that they were recovering addicts even if they'd always want whatever they had been addicted to…  
  
"Save your protests for your brother," War smiled. "I can see inside your head… And man, it is one-track city in there. Blood, blood, blood. Lust for power. Same as always. You want to be strong again, but not _just_ strong. Stronger than everybody. Good intentions; quick slide to hell, buddy boy. You feel bad now? Wait till you're thigh deep in warm corpses. Because, my friend, I'm just getting started."  
  
If Sam had been able to move, he would have done something to War even if it was probably impossible, but that became impossible when the man twisted his ring and blood flowed from his forehead, followed by him yelling out as though he had just been attacked.

* * *

"War," Bela looked grimly between Dean, Ellen and Deanna after the last few moments of brainstorming their latest discoveries. "We're up against _War_?"  
  
"That actually does explain a lot," Deanna noted. "There's always been one key reason why demons never really attacked en masse before everything that's been happening these last few years; they could never coordinate their efforts."  
  
"What?" Dean asked.  
  
"You boys may have to deal with demons every other fortnight since you started goin' it alone, but back in your dad's day they didn't get around that much," Deanna said. "It might seem like getting in and out of Hell is straightforward, but when you think about it, if it was simple to do that we'd be pretty much under siege from the dead."  
  
"Fair point," Dean noted, nodding at his grandmother. "You got a theory on that?"  
  
"Mainly the idea that getting out of Hell requires… well, let's just assume that there are rules of some sort at the other end that mean demons can't just leave whenever they want."  
  
"Like some kind of hierarchy?" Bela asked, shaking her head as she tried to force down a memory of her own time in Hell. "Upper-level demons need to agree to let the lower levels out, and upper levels can't leave too often or they'd lose any kind of control they have on things down there…?"  
  
"It's as good a theory as any," Deanna nodded. "Anyway, we have to get everyone out of-"  
  
The sound of someone hammering on the basement door drew their attention away from their conversation. Glancing up, Bela saw the man she recognised as Roger hurrying in, looking anxiously around at the rest of the group.  
  
"I saw them, the demons!" the man said, panting as he looked urgently around the room. "They know we're trying to leave. They said they're gonna pick us off one by one."  
  
"Excuse me?" Bela said incredulously.  
  
"I thought you said there were no demons," one of the other men said, glaring over at the four hunters.  
  
"There's not," Dean said, studying Roger. "Where did you go?"  
  
"I thought someone should go out and see what's going on!" Roger protested  
  
"In the middle of this mess?" Bela asked.  
  
"Where did you see the demons and what did they say exactly?" Dean countered.  
  
"We just sit here, we're going to be dead," another man said.  
  
"We have this under control-" Bela began.  
  
"They're gonna kill us unless we kill them first-" the man spoke over her.  
  
"And we don't know _what's_ going on right now; if we just dive in-" Bela tried to protest.  
  
"Look at their eyes!" the man who'd just arrived yelled, pointing urgently at the three. "They're demons!"  
  
"Excuse me?!" Deanna said, as the assembled townsfolk turned their weapons towards the hunters.  
  
"Talk later; get out _now_!" Dean yelled, grabbing his grandmother and hurrying for the door, Bela and Ellen just behind them as a shotgun struck something near them.  
  
"Upstairs!" Bela added, glancing back to make sure the door was shut before the three women and Dean raced up the stairs. As soon as they were on the street, they kept running until they reached an empty street.  
  
"OK," Ellen looked over at the other three. "Think we can assume that was further proof that we're dealing with War?"  
  
"Well, it makes sense," Deanna noted. "He turns everyone against each other by making each side think the other one's possessed, and then just sits back and lets us all shoot at each other."  
  
"And now he's just turned them against _us_ , which probably means everyone we've been working with will start using conventional weapons against the other side and they'll just end up killing each other…" Bela said grimly.  
  
"Oh God," Ellen said, looking in dawning horror at the others. "Jo and Rufus…"  
  
"And what about Sam?" Dean said urgently. "If they caught him and think _he's_ possessed…"  
  
"We're in trouble," Deanna said grimly.  
  
"Which means we've got to find Sam, Jo and Rufus before anything else goes wrong," Dean said firmly, looking over at Ellen. "Where'd you see them last time?"  
  
"…This way," Ellen said grimly, turning around and heading down the nearest street. For a few moments, the group simply moved in silence, trying to stay out of sight of anyone else they spotted coming from another direction, until Ellen held up a hand in a halting gesture while indicating a house in the middle of the street ahead of them. Carefully moving along the street in case of anyone watching them from inside, the four hunters had soon reached the house's outer walls, Bela taking a quick peek in the nearest window as soon as they were in position.  
  
"Blinds drawn," she said, her voice low as she looked at the others.  
  
"In other words, likely booby-trapped," Deanna noted.  
  
"But not likely to be anything too big…" Dean mused, moving over to assess the window himself before walking back to pick a decent-sized rock from the garden. Taking a few steps back from the house, Dean threw it through the window. The three women dived to the side as the pipe-bomb in the window exploded, Ellen and Bela swiftly running to the rear of the house while Dean and his grandmother took up position on either side of the window. As soon as Rufus came up to the window, the two dived forward to haul the man outside while the sound of a scuffle inside suggested that Jo had been caught by her mother and Bela. It only took a moment before Deanna was thrown to the side by Rufus, but Dean found himself in the perfect position to pin Rufus against the wall of the house.  
  
"Listen to me, Rufus!" Dean yelled in protest. "We're not demons! Think about this, Rufus! All those omens-!"  
  
"Go to Hell!" Rufus yelled, ramming his knee into Dean's crotch. As Dean staggered back, his grandmother charged forward, grabbing Rufus in a headlock and pulling him away from her grandson.  
  
"Now you listen here, Rufus Turner," Deanna said firmly, straining to keep the other hunter from attacking her grandson. "If you know anything about demons, you know that I'd be able to break your neck in a moment if I was possessed-"  
  
Rufus rammed an elbow backwards, throwing Deanna off-balance as he turned around to glare at the gasping woman.  
  
"I don't know who you are, you black-eyed bitch-" he began.  
  
"That's my _grandmother_ , Rufus!" Dean yelled in frustration, drawing Rufus's attention back to him. "God, think about this, Rufus! The polluted water, the shooting star, the red Mustang? It's War, Rufus; I'm telling you, it's War!"  
  
"You're damn right it-" Rufus began.  
  
"He means the _Horseman_ , you idiot!" Deanna spat at the older man in frustration. "For God's sake, Turner, did hunters just degenerate to 'shoot first' since Samuel's day? He had his issues with other hunters but he didn't just go in guns blazing at the first sign of monsters; he took time to _think_ before he did anything that might hurt anyone caught in the crossfire!"  
  
"What…?" Rufus said, looking at Deanna with a new sense of uncertainty.  
  
"It's War, Rufus," Dean said urgently. "He's turning us against each other. We're not demons, you're not demons, _nobody_ here is a demon; War just wants us to _think_ everyone's possessed."  
  
Rufus stared in silence at the two people before him for a moment, before he grimly shook his head.  
  
"Whoa…" he said, before he shot a quizzical glance at Deanna. "You really his grandmother?"  
  
"Time-travel; it's a… well, it's an odd story," Deanna smiled, before her gaze narrowed. "But right now we need to find Sam and stop War-"  
  
"Sam's in there."  
  
"Safe?" Dean asked.  
  
"Hit him 'round a bit, but apart from stuffin' salt down his throat he should be OK," Rufus said, looking at the two with a new sense of discomfort. "Well, y'know, still tryin' to exorcise a demon…"  
  
"Let's just get in there," Dean said, eyes narrowing as he ran past Rufus and into the house. As soon as he was inside, he was faced with Ellen, Bela and a shaking Jo, Ellen quickly pointing a shotgun at Rufus as he ran in behind Dean.  
  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Dean said, urgently holding up his hands.  
  
"We all on the same page here?" Ellen asked, lowering her gun as Dean nodded. "What now?"  
  
"Find War before-" Deanna began, before the sound of gunfire from outside the house. " _Damn_ , they've found us!"  
  
"Sam?" Dean looked urgently at Rufus.  
  
"Upstairs," Rufus said grimly. With that news, Dean hurried upstairs, closely followed by Bela, the two of them quickly finding Sam tied to a chair in another room.  
  
"Dean!" Sam looked urgently at his brother. "It's not demons! It's-"  
  
"War; we know," Bela said, as Dean hurried to undo Sam's straps.  
  
"We're just still working out how he's doing it," Dean said.  
  
"It's his ring," Sam said.  
  
"The ring…" Bela said, shaking her head. "Of course; he turned it on his finger just before everyone saw us as demons."  
  
"We have to move," Dean said, looking urgently around the room as gunfire continued to sound from outside. "These people are going to take us apart if we don't take War out of the picture."  
  
"Take him out?" Bela repeated. "Dean, I'm not saying 'give up', but somehow I don't think we can take out the Horseman of War with an angel blade; I don't think you even brought the Colt here!"  
  
"Maybe not," Dean smiled grimly. "But we _do_ have something else we can try."  
  
"Take the ring?" Sam suggested, smiling at his brother.  
  
"Bingo," Dean nodded, indicating the back door. "Let's go."  
  
Trying not to think too much about the sound of combat waging outside the building, the three hunters ran for the rear door of the house, refusing to look around in favour of focusing on their final goal. Even as Rufus yelled out to their attackers that there weren't any demons in the house, Dean, Sam and Bela were out of the house and heading for the street where Dean had seen the red Mustang, each one praying that their target wouldn't have left just yet…  
  
As their eyes finally fell on the red Mustang, the man known to the town as 'Roger' walking up to it, the three seized their chance. Acting without words, they all charged towards War, Dean and Sam each pinning down his arms while Bela drew her angel blade.  
  
"You really think this will accomplish anything?" War asked, looking mockingly between the two brothers, apparently unaware of Bela right at that moment. "You can't kill _War_ , you idiots!"  
  
"We get that," Dean said. "Doesn't mean we can't slow it down."  
  
As the blade sliced through War's fingers, the Winchesters allowed themselves to relax as the sound of gunfire from behind them finally came to an abrupt stop.

* * *

A couple of hours later, as Dean sat at a park table alongside his brother, his grandmother, and his… whatever… he still didn't completely know how to feel about how things had turned out.  
  
OK, so they'd stopped War's efforts to drive that entire town to destroy itself and managed to take his ring and his fingers off, leaving him curled up in his car sobbing over his bleeding hand before he'd vanished, but it was hard to feel like they'd actually accomplished anything. Jo, Ellen and Rufus hadn't discussed how many people had died before the four of them had come to town, when they were each convinced that they were dealing with demons rather than people, and none of the others felt like bringing it up, and if this was the first Horseman, that meant that there could still be another three out there for them to deal with at some point.  
  
"So," Dean asked, holding up War's ring, "pit stop at Mount Doom?"  
  
The weak joke was met with only silence, until Sam finally spoke.  
  
"I have to go."  
  
"What?" Deanna looked at him sharply. "If this is-"  
  
"When I was talking with War…" Sam began, sighing in frustration. "I know he has a warped perspective on everything, but he was right about one thing; from the moment I saw that blood, it was the only thought in my head. I can tell myself it was for the right reasons, that my intentions are good, and it… it feels true, but I think, underneath… I just missed the feeling."  
  
"You were doing it to save lives; you didn't want to acknowledge the full scale of what it was doing to you-" Deanna began.  
  
"But I should have," Sam said grimly. "And now… I know I'm messed up, and I can't even blame the blood or Ruby or anything; it's me, and how far I'll go."  
  
"Your family _does_ seem to have issues when it comes to letting go," Bela noted, smiling weakly to try and assure Sam she didn't mean it as a bad thing.  
  
"And that's the problem," Sam said, looking awkwardly at his hands. "There's something in me that… that scares the hell out of me, and these last couple of days, I got another glimpse…"  
  
"So what are you saying?" Dean asked, the two women only able to watch this exchange in silence.  
  
"I'm in no shape to go hunting," Sam said. "I need to step back, 'cause I'm dangerous. Maybe it's best we just… go our separate ways."  
  
"Sam…" Deanna said, reaching over to place an awkward hand on her grandson's arm.  
  
"I think you're right."  
  
"Really?" Sam looked at his brother in surprise, their grandmother looking solemnly between the two. "I was expecting a fight."  
  
"Truth is…" Dean noted grimly, "right now, I spent more time worrying about you than doing the job right. And I just… I can't afford that, you know? Not now."  
  
"I'm sorry, Dean," Sam admitted.  
  
"I know you are, Sam."  
  
"That's just not enough right now?" Bela asked, looking sharply at Dean. "This is _Sam_ , Dean-!"  
  
"And we're not in a good place right now and it's never going to get better if we try and force it," Dean said, even as he looked awkwardly over at Sam. "You, uh, you wanna take the Impala?"  
  
"He doesn't need to," Deanna stood up. "I'll take him."  
  
"You?" the other three looked at Deanna in surprise.  
  
"Well, I've been hunting in one form or another since… everything happened," Deanna said, smiling briefly at Bela. "And I've enjoyed working with Miss Talbot here, but maybe it's time to get a better feel for the world as it is with help from my grandson, rather than tracking down its supernatural secrets with a close friend all the time."  
  
"…Fair enough," Bela nodded, smiling briefly at the woman who had become her friend under such strange circumstances. "It could be good for you."  
  
"I… I'd like that," Sam smiled uncertainly at his grandmother.  
  
As Sam and Deanna headed towards a nearby pickup, Bela could only take Dean's hand in a show of awkward emotional support, the would-be vessel for the archangel Michael looking grimly after his only remaining biological family as they drove off into the distance.  
  
She could understand why they'd made this decision, but that didn't make it easier; the concept of the Winchesters without each other just felt wrong on so many levels…  
  
"Anywhere you need to go?" Dean asked, looking back at Bela with a forced smile.  
  
"Right now?" Bela replied, trying to return Dean's expression with a more compassionate one. "Right now, I think… you and I… need a day to ourselves… before we start chasing up more leads."  
  
She didn't think she and Dean were emotionally ready to commit to a full-time… whatever they had… when the Apocalypse was going on all around them, but even if they needed all hands on deck to find a solution to this beyond 'find Lucifer and try and shoot him with the Colt', that didn't mean she couldn't offer Dean some more immediate comfort after a particularly hard hunt.


	48. Into the Future

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologise to whom it may concern, but I decided to skip over 'Free to Be You and Me', as Sam's time in that bar doesn't really change if Deanna's with him or not (apart from her maybe showing up to help him tell those other hunters to leave him alone) and Dean's still hunting solo at this point apart from his brief team-up with Castiel to track down Raphael (although I'll discuss what Bela's doing at this point as well); this chapter begins after Dean's sent to the future, while he's driving to Bobby's house to try and find answers about the current situation

Dean still wasn't sure if this was some kind of inverted djinn attack, Zach just being a douche and making him hallucinate, or the thing he was really trying _not_ to think about, but either way, the more time he spent trying to work out what had happened to the world since 2009, the less he liked what he was dealing with.

It had all seemed so simply when he'd first set off after defeating War; his grandmother was keeping an eye on Sam, Bela was off following up further leads on other sources that might help them put Lucifer back in the Cage, and he hadn't really met with Castiel since that last attempt to trap and question Raphael. He'd been alone, but after the way things had gotten so messed up when he was working with other people, he'd wanted to just get back to a good old-fashioned style of hunting where he was just going out there to stop monsters killing people, and not have to worry about anything else.

The strangest thing about it for Dean was that, when he really started thinking about the downsides of going it alone, it was Bela his thoughts turned to more often than not, and it wasn't just because of their last night together.

 _God, Bela_ …

He hadn't actually met with the thief since that night they'd spent together following the confrontation with War, but he'd kept the phone lines open, ready to update her if case anything big happened or if he was going after something that might be too much for him. He didn't feel right calling Bobby with those kind of updates in case the mechanic just ended up feeling particularly bitter about the state of his legs, considering that the man was only in that state because he was trying to save Dean while he was possessed.

Bela… it was strange, but even after everything she'd done in that first year, ever since they'd crawled out of Hell together after Cas had dragged them out, he couldn't help but care about her. She'd been irreverent and dismissive towards everything he and Sam tried to do in their first year, but in the second, she'd spent so much time helping his grandmother cope with what had happened after her jump to the future… she'd risked her life taking some dangerous magical artefacts out of the picture… she'd fought alongside them to protect those Seals… and there were those moments they'd spent together…

He didn't expect to get that attached to someone after how things had started, but he was already starting to miss having even the option of talking to her…

 _Seriously, most hunters should only have to worry about someone shutting off their phones because they find out our credit is faked, and I end up stuck in the goddamn_ future _with no idea what I'm doing here and even less of an idea where everyone_ else _is_ , he groaned mentally. This thing had started being a screw-up when he saw that Croatoan-infected girl trying to attack him, had become even worse when he saw the date on that sign, and now he needed to focus on the hope that whatever clues Bobby had left for him at this Camp Chitaqua place could provide him with something about what had happened or he'd really be screwed. He'd tried and failed to reach any of his usual contacts, but considering that even the car's radio wasn't working now, that could just have been because communications were down in this future rather than anything… personal.

God, what had his family done to get caught up in this kind of shit? He'd wanted to believe that he and Sam were better off apart because people couldn't use them against each other that way, and that was before he found out that his brother was destined to be Lucifer's Vessel in the apocalypse's final battle, but it seemed like everyone wanted to drag them back into it when they were trying to get out…

And why was it there was a part of him that _really_ wanted to know where Bela was over everyone else?

OK, Sam and Bobby had been his first priority, but Bela and Castiel had been pretty much tied for the third person he wanted to get back in touch with once he confirmed Bobby wasn't at the junkyard; what did that have to say about his life when the woman who'd once tried to kill him was slightly higher on the list than his grandmother (Even if he was fairly sure he'd find Deanna if he found her)?

 _Croatoan pandemics in Australia, Houston's being bombed, group assembly's been revoked, something shot up the yard and probably did something to Bobby… I need to work this out_ fast _or find something I can safely hit_ …

* * *

Regaining consciousness, Dean only had a moment to wonder what had happened before he registered who was sitting a short distance away from him.  
  
Seeing the Impala in that state had been terrible, but he _really_ hadn't been prepared for the idea of seeing himself sitting opposite him in a manner that _really_ didn't feel like it was a shapeshifter or something else like that. He tried to get up to take a closer look at this thing, but that was cut short when he registered the handcuffs holding him to the ladder.  
  
"What the _hell_?" he said, looking between the cuffs and the other him.  
  
"I should be asking that question, don't you think?" the other Dean asked, cocking a gun in a warning manner. "In fact, why don't you give me one good reason why I shouldn't gank you right here and now?"  
  
"Because you'd only be hurting yourself," Dean said, lost for a better joke.  
  
"Very funny," the other him noted, raising the gun to reload it.  
  
"Look, man," Dean began, praying that his other self was still going to be rational despite the bizarreness of this situation, "I'm no shapeshifter or demon or anything, OK?"  
  
"Yeah, I know," the other Dean said casually. "I did the drill while you were out. Silver, salt, holy water; nothing. But you know what was funny? Was that you had every hidden lockpick, box cutter, and switchblade that I carry. Now, you want to explain that? Oh, and the, uh, resemblance, while you're at it?"  
  
"Zachariah," Dean replied, having noted during his other self's speech that he didn't feel like he'd sustained any real cuts during his other self's test; he could cope with minor test injuries, but he was feeling confused enough without having to worry about any kind of damage.  
  
"Come again?" his other self said, looking at him with a new intensity.  
  
"I'm you from the tail end of 2009," Dean clarified; the fact that this guy didn't already know that at least suggested he wasn't in some kind of screwy time loop like some of those shows Sam had told him about after his last trip back, where he was always going to come forward and meet himself and still end up like this, but he wasn't going to pin too much on that just yet. "Zach plucked me from my bed and threw me five years into the future."  
  
"Where is he?" Dean of the future asked urgently. "I want to talk to him."  
  
"I don't know," Dean shrugged (He wasn't going to over-analyse why he'd be so eager to see that douche in any timeline).  
  
"Oh, you don't know," his future self said.  
  
"No, I don't know," Dean informed himself bluntly. "Look, I just want to get back to my own friggin' year, OK?"  
  
"OK," his other self said, sitting back down with a thoughtful glare. "If you're me, then tell me something only I would know."  
  
"Rhonda Hurley," Dean said after a moment's pause for thought; some Bela-related stuff might be less embarrassing than what he was about to say, but if this wasn't him he didn't want to give away anything potentially 'useful' for any demons he might be dealing with. "We were, uh, nineteen. She made us try on her panties. They were pink. And satiny. And you know what? We kind of liked it."  
  
"Touché," the other Dean, giving him a brief wistful smile at the memory. "So, what, Zach zapped you up here to see how bad it gets?"  
  
"I guess," Dean shrugged, hoping that the worst-case scenario wasn't the reason his other self had just picked up a gun. "Croatoan virus, right? That's their endgame?"  
  
"It's efficient, it's incurable, and it's scary as hell," the future Dean said firmly, packing guns into a bag. "Turns people into monsters. Started hitting the major cities about two years ago. World really went in the crapper after that."  
  
"What about Sam?"  
  
"Heavyweight showdown in Detroit," the future Dean said after a moment's pause that said more than his next words. "From what I understand, Sam didn't make it."  
  
"You weren't with him?"  
  
"No," Dean's future self said, letting out a humourless chuckle. "No, me and Sam, we haven't talked in- hell, five years."  
  
"We never tried to find him?" Dean asked, unable to believe he was hearing this from himself. "What about Grandma?"  
  
"Died in the first assault."  
  
"Oh," Dean said, fighting down his pain at that news; he'd only known his grandmother for a few months, but that was still a personal loss. "And what 'bout-?"  
  
"Got other people to worry about now," his future self said firmly, before heading for the door to the small cabin.  
  
"Where you going?" Dean asked.  
  
"I got to run an errand."  
  
"Whoa; you're just going to leave me here?"  
  
"Yes," Dean's future self said grimly. "I got a camp full of twitchy trauma survivors out there with an apocalypse hanging over their head; the last thing they need to see is a version of _The Parent Trap_. So, yeah, you stay locked down."  
  
"OK," Dean said. "All right, fine, but you don't have to cuff me, man. Oh, come on; you don't trust yourself?"  
  
"Let's just say it's… a bit of a delicate situation right now," the future Dean said, actually looking awkward for a moment before he closed the door behind him, leaving Dean alone in the room.  
  
Actually, when Dean examined the place, he wondered if his future self was giving him a chance or had just forgotten everything he was capable of; the options would hurt, but it wasn't like it would be _that_ hard to get out of this place.

* * *

The more he saw of this camp, the more Dean had to wonder what was going on here. He could appreciate that Chuck had a very basic sense of priorities, particularly now that he probably didn't have to worry about writing the Gospels, but the thing that really surprised him was how he hadn't seen anything to suggest that he had some kind of sexual partner here so far.  
  
He liked to think of himself as just having a healthy sexual appetite, but he knew enough about himself to know that he'd want sex no matter how rough things were in the wider world, but he'd seen more than a few girls so far and nobody had shown that kind of interest in him thinking he was the older him…  
  
Still, right now, he had the bigger question of what the Hell had happened to turn Castiel into an unshaven, sandal-wearing slob who seemed to be remarkably casual about discussing what sounded strongly like an orgy to Dean.  
  
"Excuse me, ladies," Castiel said, noticing Dean standing at the 'door' (Seriously, why did anyone think these bead things were a good idea). "I think I need to confer with our fearless leader for a minute. Why not go get washed up for the orgy?"  
  
As the women left, Dean wondered what it said about his relationship with Cas if he found it disturbing to see the angel actually express any kind of interest in physical comforts after so long dealing with the guy missing social cues.  
  
"OK, what are you, a hippie?" Dean asked, looking incredulously at his friend.  
  
"I thought you'd gotten over trying to label me," Castiel replied, as he finished his stretches and turned around.  
  
"Cas," Dean said, "we gotta talk."  
  
"Whoa," Castiel said, looking directly at him for the first time. "Strange."  
  
"What?"  
  
"You… are not you," Castiel replied. "Not now you, anyway."  
  
"No!" Dean said, before he realised just what the angel had said to him. "Yeah. Yes, exactly."  
  
"What year are you from?"  
  
"2009."  
  
"Who did this to you?" Castiel asked. "Is it Zachariah?"  
  
"Yes," Dean said, deciding to take it as a good sign that there weren't any new angels for him to worry about yet; maybe Zach was the biggest non-Lucifer angel they had to worry about right now.  
  
"Interesting…"  
  
"Oh yeah, it's friggin' fascinating," Dean said, slapping his hands together impatiently. "Now, why don't you strap on your angel wings and fly me back to my page on the calendar?"  
  
"I wish I could just, uh, strap on my wings," Castiel smiled, actually laughing at the request in a manner that Dean didn't like, "but I'm sorry, no dice."  
  
"What; are you stoned?" Dean looked incredulously at the man who'd dragged him out of Hell.  
  
"Generally, yeah," Castiel said, a bitter edge to his joking tone.  
  
"What happened to you?" Dean asked, suddenly uncertain if he wanted to know what had driven the angel this far.  
  
"Life," the angel responded grimly, before looking over Dean's shoulder with a slight smile. "And speaking of life, you're going to have a particular surprise right now…"  
  
Turning around, Dean was shocked to find a little girl smiling up at him, wearing a dark green shirt and blue trousers with dark blonde hair.  
  
"Hi, Daddy," she said to him.  
  
"Joanna!" a familiar voice called out, followed by a familiar woman running up to the girl. "Daddy and I told you not-"  
  
" _Bela_?" Dean yelled, looking between the girl and the woman in shock.  
  
"I did tell you you'd be surprised," Castiel noted.  
  
"What?" Bela looked uncertainly between Dean, Castiel and Joanna, wearing a more casual attire of a loose denim jacket and stained jeans as opposed to the form-fitting suit trousers and designer blouses she favoured in his time.  
  
He knew that he was… attached… to Bela, but the idea that she'd had his _kid_?


	49. Johanna Winchester & 'Uncle' Lucifer?

"Daddy?" the little girl- _Joanna_ \- asked, looking curiously at him. "Are you OK?"

"Daddy's just… got a lot on now," Dean said, looking at the girl while trying not to show how uncomfortable he was at this particular development.

He might think that family was important, but the idea that he'd have one of his own when he knew what the world was like…

His father had dragged him and Sam into this life because it was the only way to keep them safe, but it was one thing to take care of kids when you already had them and another matter to bring them into the world when you knew they'd be dealing with demons and monsters and everything in between.

The idea that he'd had a child in a world that literally gone to Hell…

"What's wrong?" Bela asked, her voice breaking his train of thought as he realised that she was staring at him in a concerned manner. "You seem so…"

Her voice trailed off as she looked more closely at him, eyes narrowing for a moment before she became visibly confused and turned to her daughter. "Go with Uncle Cas, Jo."

"Mommy?" the girl asked.

"Daddy and Mommy need to have a talk," Bela said, smiling warmly at the little girl. "Just dull grown-up stuff; ask Uncle Cas to read something to you."

"OK," the girl smiled, taking Castiel's hand and hurrying out of the hut. "C'mon, Unky Cas; I wanna read more of Percy!"

"…Percy?" Dean looked at Bela in surprise as the girl and the angel hurried into another hut.

"Percy Jackson," Bela replied briefly. "Gods on that level aren't a problem any more, so letting her read about them in novels never seemed like a problem… which proves that you're not Dean."

"I'm not?"

"Not… _my_ Dean," Bela said, smiling awkwardly at him before she assumed a more serious expression. "What I want to know is what you _are_."

If it had been anyone else, Dean might have tried to bluff his way through this situation, but even if it hadn't happened to him yet, he couldn't lie to the mother of his child.

"I'm from the past."

"The past," Bela repeated, before giving him a brief smile. "So you're doing that again?"

"Marty McFly the other way around," Dean shrugged, wishing he felt as light about the matter as he sounded before he looked more curiously at her. "And as long as we're talking about time travel and family ties… Joanna?"

"Partly after your father, and partly after… well, after a friend," Bela said, her tone awkward. "It was… well, she gave a lot to the cause, so…"

"Gotcha," Dean said, refusing to consider the implications of Bela's avoidance; he could be fairly sure who the 'friend' was that she was talking about, but even if Bobby and Sam were almost certainly dead now, he was going to hope that anyone who wasn't here already was just somewhere else and/or _presumed_ dead. "How did… well…?"

"You know what they say," Bela shrugged, giving him a small smile. "The only foolproof protection is abstinence, and we were never very good at that when we had the time."

"Right," Dean acknowledged, fighting down the urge to panic; after all his one-night stands, the idea that he could have had a child in the middle of the actual _Apocalypse_ …

"We've kept her as safe as possible," Bela explained. "The moment she was born, Castiel used some of his remaining angelic influence to put the same sigils on her as he gave us; angels can't detect her, we've done our best to keep her secret from Lucifer's forces, and…"

"Anything that _does_ see her gets put down before it can hurt her?"

"Precisely."

"So… she's safe," Dean smiled, looking thoughtfully at the door the little girl had gone through before another detail came to him. "What about… Grandma?"

"Dead."

Spinning around at the unfamiliar voice, Dean only slightly relaxed when he realised that it was just himself (He guessed it was true what everyone said; you always sounded _really_ different to yourself compared to what you heard in your head).

"Dead?" he asked, focusing on what mattered. "What happened?"

"Sam," the older Dean answered grimly. "She tried to save him… didn't work out."

Dean wished he knew what to say in this situation. The notion that his grandmother had died for his brother was depressingly, but at the same time, he'd only know her for a year or so, and from his perspective it technically hadn't happened yet…

"How did it go?" Bela asked, looking anxiously at the older Dean.

"One got bitten," the older Dean explained bitterly, before turning back to Bela. "We've got work to do."

"Hold on; one got bitten?" Dean cut in. "Bitten by what?"

"Croats," his future self said bitterly. "Croatoans. One of them infected Yeager."

"You know that?"

"You get used to the signs after this long," the older Dean said grimly. "Didn't see the point troubling him about it when he didn't seem to know it himself, but…"

Dean wasn't sure if he was comfortable with the idea of himself being so nonchalant about killing a human, but he could appreciate the fact that at least he hadn't done it when his daughter might see it.

"By the way," he said, deciding to tackle his most pressing personal question before things got too serious, "Joanna?"

"After Dad and Jo," the future Dean clarified. "She's named after them, but it's actually spelt 'Johanna' on her birth certificate so she can feel like it's hers rather than one of theirs; spelt the same way as in _Hunger Games_ , you know?"

"Don't think I've read that one…"

"He's from 2009, Dean; _Catching Fire_ might not even have come out yet," Bela noted, smiling at his future self before looking back at Dean. "Johanna was a character in that series; she… well, she won a contest against twenty-three opponents where only one of them could get out alive by pretending to be weak and helpless so nobody would pay attention to her until they were down to the last few, and then she went on a killing spree."

"Ah," Dean noted, glancing at the door that his daughter had gone through with a thoughtful smile. "Well… don't approve of the killing-humans bit, but… suppose I can get behind that as a strategy… Makes a cool name, anyway."

"Yeah," his future self smiled, before his expression became grimmer. "And this is when that ends."

"What ends?"

"Hiding like this," the older him said firmly, reaching into his pocket to pull out the familiar form of the Colt as he looked grimly at his past self. "It ends tonight."

"How?" Dean asked.

"We found Lucifer."

"You actually found him?" Bela looked sceptically at her… Dean suddenly wondered what kind of relationship the two of them had by now. "What makes you think-?"

"Oh, it's almost certainly a goddamn trap, but that doesn't mean we can't turn it around and use it ourselves," Dean's future self said grimly. "Guy who gave us the locale took a while to talk, but we've been careful about taking this out, and there's no way for any of the smoky bastards to be sure we can still make bullets for this thing-"

"Wait; are you saying that they _know_ we have that?" Dean cut in, looking sharply between himself and Bela, their subdued reactions all the confirmation he needed. "How the Hell'd that happen? We _never_ bring that thing out unless we're sure we need to kill something; did we just-?"

The phone call he'd shared with Sam just before he took this jump into the future suddenly jumped to the front of his mind, along with the horrible implications of this world on top of everything he'd heard before coming here.

"He said _yes_?" he started incredulously at his future self.

"No idea why," the older man said firmly. "Maybe Sam thought he had some big plan, maybe Luci convinced him it wasn't goin' to be as bad as all this… whatever it was, Luci's been wearin' Sam to the prom since this mess started, and there's no way to get him out."

"You can't be _serious_!" Dean yelled, slamming his hand against the wall as he glared at his future self. "This is _Sam_ we're talkin' about-"

" _You think I don't know that_!" the other Dean glared, walking up to stare his past self in the eye.

"Dean," Bela said, looking at them in a manner that made it clear she was addressing both of them, "you need to _calm down_."

The older Dean paused for a moment, staring at Bela with a pained expression, before he sighed and stepped back.

"Sorry," he said, looking back at his past self. "Believe me, I thought everything you're probably thinking when I first heard the news, but it's in him, it's not getting out, and we have to stop it for _her_."

"You're goin' to use your _kid_ as an excuse-"

"She's half the reason I haven't just started torturin' people to vent how I feel about the state of the world right now; you _really_ want to get into my motives at a time like this?" Dean's silence was all the response his future self needed to continue. "We need to kill Lucifer if this is ever goin' to stop… and the only other option we've got is you goin' back when Zach's finished with you and doin' what you can to change things."

"Change things… hold on, you mean Michael?" Dean looked incredulously at his other self. "You do get that-?"

"You think I _want_ that? God, I get that the planet could be torched if those two duke it out, but it's half the planet gets vaped in that roundup or no planet at all, which is what we're going to be left with at this rate!"

"So why didn't you say 'yes' if you're that sure about it?"

"You think I didn't? Second I knew Sam had said 'yes' I was doin' my best to get Michael's attention, shoutin' 'yes' til I was blue in the face-"

"With conditions, naturally," Bela cut in.

"Conditions, sure, but it didn't matter what I did; they just weren't listenin' any more," the future Dean said, looking grimly at his past self. "It's too late for me, but for you-"

"There's another way," Dean said firmly.

"That's what I thought," the older Dean said, staring bitterly down at the ground. "I was cocky… never actually thought I'd lose-"

"You haven't lost as long as you're alive when something else is actively trying to kill you, Dean," Bela cut in, stepping forward to stand between the two Deans as she glared firmly at his future self. "And in case you're forgetting, there's a little girl back there who still sees you as her saviour. You've done everything you could do for her, and you've kept these people alive, so you don't get to say you've lost because you were up against the most powerful entity on the _planet_."

"And if you really thought you'd lost, you wouldn't even be _trying_ to do this," Dean glared, indicating the Colt. "You got a plan?"

"We've found Lucifer's current set-up," Dean's future self nodded grimly. "It's right in the middle of a Croat hotzone, which means that we've got to get through a shitload of killer psychos and demons before we even get close to our target, so I'm going to need to get the main guys we've got left to make a big enough fuss at one end so that I can get at him the other way."

Looking at his future self, Dean wasn't sure how he should feel about the implications of that plan. Maybe his future self had some training that he just hadn't gone through yet, but right now that description sounded like he was basically going to use Castiel and any other fighters on his team as a distraction while he went after Lucifer.

"You sure about this?"

"It's the best idea we've had," Bela noted grimly.

"Then I'm going."

"You can't-"

"Zach sent me here for a reason, so I've got to believe that he ain't gonna let me get me end up dead," Dean explained. "And if this is how it's all gonna end… I want to see that."

Dean might be thrown by seeing himself from this angle from the outside, but he knew Bela well enough by this point to know that she didn't approve of the idea even as she knew that he wasn't going to be talked out of it. Riding into a battle with the devil himself was definitely one of the crazier things he'd ever done, but if this was going to be the future, Dean was going to get the other side of the picture while he was here.

If his brother was Lucifer's meatsuit, he wanted to be _sure_ there wasn't some screwy master plan going on before he condemned Sam for good…

* * *

A few hours later, Dean wondered if his future self had ever seriously believed that this plan would work.  
  
The drive to Lucifer's apparent base had been more than slightly awkward, considering that he'd been travelling with Castiel as the only other person in the 'strike team' who knew about him already- Bela staying behind to take care of Johanna- and the angel he'd known five years ago had become a drug-addled mess who only seemed to be in the fight because he had no idea what to do with himself after the loss of his powers. Dean had tried to focus on the fact that Cas was still willing to fight for them despite everything he'd lost as proof they were doing the right thing, but when he'd reached their destination and been stabbed in the neck with some kind of tranquiliser…  
  
 _Seriously, how much of that drugged hippie bit was all an act?_  
  
He didn't know how long he'd been out of it, but when he woke up to see some of the 'strike team' running away from the building's front entrance, he'd barely given himself a moment to ascertain the situation before diving round the back of the house.  
  
 _Front must have been the trap, and future-me probably told them to back off once it reached a certain point to save their asses, but if Luci's in Sam he'd have to know that we'd know that, which means…_  
  
Even in his worst nightmares, he'd never imagined that he'd see Sam breaking his own neck; the fact that the white suit made it clear that this wasn't Sam only made it slightly easier.  
  
"Oh," Sam- _Lucifer!_ \- said, turning to look at him as though the sight of the man he'd just killed in two places at once was no big deal. "Hello, Dean; aren't you a surprise? You've come a long way to see this, haven't you?"  
  
"Well, go ahead," Dean said, ignoring the thunder and lightning booming overhead as he stared at the thing using his brother as a puppet. "Kill me."  
  
"Kill you?" Lucifer said, looking down at Dean's dead future self. "Don't you think that would be a little… redundant?"  
  
Dean wasn't sure what made him feel more sick; that Sam was being used like this, or that Lucifer was being so damn nonchalant about the fact that he was talking to someone he'd just killed, as though time travel and everything was just another day at the goddamn office.  
  
"I'm sorry," Lucifer said, and the bastard actually had the gall to sound like he meant it. "It must be painful, speaking to me in this… shape. But it had to be your brother. It had to be."  
  
As Lucifer reached for his shoulder, Dean stepped back; if he was going to die at the hands of this fuck, he wasn't going to give the bastard the satisfaction of pretending to be friendly.  
  
"You don't have to be afraid of me, Dean," Lucifer said, surprisingly nonchalant for what he was. "What do you think I'm going to do?"  
  
"I don't know," Dean countered as Lucifer walked past him. "Maybe deep-fry the planet?"  
  
"Why?" Lucifer asked, examining a rose in a manner that made Dean think of that _Beauty and the Beast_ poster he'd seen when that film came out in the early nineties. "Why would I want to destroy this stunning thing? Beautiful in a trillion different ways. The last perfect handiwork of God."  
  
Dean simply glared harshly at the fallen archangel; as far as he was concerned, if this guy wanted to show that he loved the planet, he shouldn't be planning to annihilate the dominant species because they weren't perfect.  
  
"You ever hear the story of how I fell from grace?"  
  
"Oh, good God, you're not gonna tell me a bedtime story, are you?" Dean said, falling back on his default sarcasm and praying Sam had enough influence in there to stop Lucifer killing him twice over in a few minutes. "My stomach's almost out of bile."  
  
"You know why God cast me down?" Lucifer continued, showing no reaction to Dean's retort. "Because I loved him. More than anything. And then God created… you. The little... hairless apes. And then he asked all of us to bow down before you- to love _you_ more than him. And I said, 'Father, I can't'. I said, 'These human beings are flawed, murderous'. And for that, God had Michael cast me into hell. Now, tell me, does the punishment fit the crime? Especially when I was right? Look at what six billion of you have done to this thing, and how many of you blame me for it."  
  
Dean had never thought he could hate something more than he hated the kind of monster who just killed people for no other reason than that it liked killing people, but right now, he absolutely hated the angel in front of him when the guy had just clearly explained his chain of reasoning for his plans to destroy humanity.  
  
Maybe the human race wasn't perfect, but if his experience with Bela over the past year had taught him anything, it was that nobody deserved to be thrown under the bus to that extent without at least giving them a chance.  
  
Right now, looking at Lucifer, all he saw was a nigh-omnipotent idiot who was so blinded by prejudice that he couldn't see why he was wrong, or even bother to look for reasons why he might not have been right.  
  
"You're not fooling me, you know," he said, deciding to keep it simple while fighting the urge to cry at seeing what Sam had become. "All this 'sympathy-for-the-devil' crap? I know what you are."  
  
"What am I?" Lucifer asked, apparently genuinely curious.  
  
"Just a bigger version of the kind of evil shit I've been hunting all my life," Dean said firmly. "An ugly, evil, belly-to-the-ground, supernatural piece of crap. The only difference between them and you is the size of your ego."  
  
"And you are innocent of that sin?" Lucifer asked. "Believing that I wouldn't know about Johanna?"  
  
Dean's blood ran cold at that statement.  
  
"You even _dare_ -!" he began, walking up towards the archangel before he could realise what he was doing.  
  
"Now why should I do that?" Lucifer smiled, the nonchalance bringing Dean to a halt. "After all, most of humanity might have been dealt with, but we have not truly waged the Apocalypse until I face Michael; if my brother is no longer interested in you as a vessel… it stands to reason that his new true vessel will emerge later in your bloodline."  
  
If Dean's blood had been cold earlier, it was virtually ice now.  
  
Lucifer planned to keep his daughter alive for _breeding stock_?  
  
"I like you, Dean," Lucifer gave him a brief grin. "I get what the other angels see in you. Goodbye. We'll meet again soon."  
  
"You know," Dean said resolutely, as Lucifer turned away from him, "the second I get the chance, I am going to find a way to kill you, and I'll never stop."  
  
"I know you won't," Lucifer said, actually daring to look sorry as he turned back to Dean. "I know you won't say yes to Michael, either. And I know you won't kill Sam. Whatever you do, you will always end up here. Whatever choices you make, whatever details you alter, we will always end up… here. I win. So, I win."  
  
"You're wrong," Dean said resolutely.  
  
As Lucifer simply smiled at him with a nonchalant comment that he'd see Dean in five years, Dean turned around to see Zachariach standing behind him, the older-looking angel raising his fingers to Dean's forehead-

* * *

After reeling against the sink, once again hating the way that teleportation shit made him feel, Dean turned his attention back to his angelic visitor, fighting down the urge to vomit.  
  
"Well," he said firmly, praying he wouldn't ruin the moment by vomiting even if the bastard deserved it, "if it isn't the Ghost of Christmas Screw you."  
  
"Enough," Zachariah said. "Dean, enough. You saw it, right? You saw what happens. You're the only person who can prove the devil wrong. Just say yes."  
  
"How do I know that this whole thing isn't one of your tricks?" Dean countered, deciding to focus on the essential questions. "Some angel hocus-pocus?"  
  
"The time for tricks is over," the bald angel countered. "Give yourself to Michael. Say yes and we can strike. Before Lucifer gets to Sam. Before billions die."  
  
Phrased that way, on top of everything he'd just seen, it almost sounded good; maybe if he said 'Yes' to Michael, if he understood what Cas had told him about archangels and the more complicated rules about their vessels, he could take Lucifer out of the picture before he got to his 'True Vessel' while he was still low on juice…  
  
 _These guys_ want _the apocalypse as it's written; if they take me, Mike's almost certainly goin' to keep me in reserve until Luci's ready to fight, and then we're_ still _going to take a shitload of fire before it's all over, and that's assuming the 'good' archangel wins it in the end…_  
  
But there was also Johanna to consider.  
  
Time-travel had never been a favourite genre of Dean's, but he'd picked up enough from some of Sam's favourite shows back when they could spare the time to watch stuff to understand that history was a tricky thing to tamper with.  
  
He'd put his own life at risk, but if he gave into this bastard's schemes now, his daughter would never be born.  
  
If he fought as himself… maybe the odds weren't great, but there had to be a chance…  
  
"Nah."  
  
"Nah?" Zachariah repeated incredulously (and hearing the prick in a suit say something like that was almost worth it). "You telling me you haven't learned your lesson?"  
  
"Oh, I've learned a lesson," Dean confirmed, staring firmly back at his enemy. "Just not the one you wanted to teach."  
  
"Well, I'll just have to teach it again!" Zachariah practically growled. "Because I got you now, boy, and I'm never letting you-"

* * *

Hit with another sense of teleportation disorientation, Dean found himself standing on the side of a road, Castiel looking at him  
  
"That's pretty nice timing, Cas," Dean grinned at his friend, suddenly remembering their earlier talk about Cas bringing him over so that they could plan their next move once he'd had some sleep.  
  
"We had an appointment," the angel said in his familiar direct manner, such a change from the near-hippy in the future who seemed unwilling to focus on anything more than where he was going to get laid.  
  
"Don't ever change," Dean said firmly.  
  
"How did Zachariah find you?"  
  
"Long story," Dean said, reaching into his pocket as he spoke. "Let's just stay away from Jehovah's Witnesses from now on, OK?"  
  
"What are you doing?" Cas asked as Dean pulled out his phone.  
  
"Something I should have done in the first place," Dean said, already planning his next move; he wasn't sure how much of it he was going to share with his brother, but if he could just-  
  
"What is this?" Castiel said before Dean could start dialling, holding out a crumpled piece of paper that had fallen out of his pocket. Dean was about to make a pithy comeback when the scent of the paper hit his nostrils, accompanied by a distinctive B written on a visible corner, and the phone was immediately forgotten as he grabbed the note and unfolded it, suddenly recalling that last hug he'd received from Bela before he joined Castiel in heading for that last car.  
  
 _WHEN YOU'RE HOME_  
  
 _ENTER FOR JOHANNA_  
  
 _20 NOVEMBER_  
  
Dean couldn't be sure what that meant, but based on his daughter's age and Bela's interesting sense of humour, he had an idea or two…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I skipped Dean's talk with FutureCas and his last talk with his future self, but I decided that, with Johanna giving Dean something to be human for, there was less merit in showing just how far he's fallen in this future and more merit in showing his confrontation with Lucifer, as well as sowing the seeds for certain future events


	50. A Meeting of Future Sisters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record, I considered looking at the events of "Fallen Idols", but while that was a good case for Dean and Sam to rebuild their old bond, it felt like a relatively superfluous episode when I'm sure people would prefer to see Dean reaffirming his bond with Bela, or at least see Bela back on the road with Deanna. Add on my sudden idea for another plot element regarding Sam's future in this series, and I thought this would be a good time to do an original hunt; hope you enjoy the results

Ever since the four of them had taken down War, Bela hadn't been sure what she should expect when she next made contact with the brothers. She and Dean had each accepted that their chosen hunting styles were fundamentally incompatible, Dean favouring a direct approach of confronting the monsters directly where Bela was coming to appreciate the more indirect method of identifying potential 'hotspots' before they became a danger, but they still enjoyed it when circumstances brought them together, and Bela knew that she and Dean could always call on each other if a hunt escalated. The idea that Dean and Sam had parted company had worried her for a time, but last week she'd received a call from Dean that he and Sam had resumed their old 'road trip' hunt. Both Winchesters and those allies they trusted were essentially all in agreement that none of them were entirely ready to go up against Lucifer directly yet, as even the Colt didn't offer any guarantees if they couldn't be sure of hitting the target, but they were still dealing with comparatively minor hunts to keep their instincts fresh for when the time came.

At the moment, while Bela regretted the fact that she hadn't been able to catch up with Dean directly yet, she'd made it clear to the elder Winchester that she and Deanna would be available if he and Sam needed back-up on short notice, and in the meantime she and Deanna were focusing on their own individual hunt. The last she'd heard, Dean and Sam had already dealt with an unusual apparent haunting and a case involving something strange in a small town that neither brother liked to discuss. The two groups were making arrangements to meet up to follow up a couple of unusual disappearances in a week or so, but since everything they'd found so far suggested that the hunt didn't sound too dangerous, Bela had decided to accept Deanna's request to follow up an old case the time-displaced woman had found in her husband's family records.

The hunt in question was simple enough to be nothing more than a coincidence, but remembering the hunt described in one of Chuck's books, it was enough to capture Bela's interest. According to records made by the Campbell family, a series of art collectors had died in twenty-one year intervals, each victim essentially aging overnight. As forensic science advanced, tests of the bodies had demonstrated that the victims seemed to be suffering from various diseases, ranging from drug addictions to STIs, but amazingly enough, there was nothing to suggest that any of those diseases had killed the victim, and they had always been completely free of infection in prior medical check-ups even if one had taken place just days before they died. The art collectors covered a wide range of social levels, with some having an entire house filled with statues and paintings while others just had a few pictures, but they had always died near their pictures. The Campbell records strongly suggested that this pattern had some root supernatural cause, and the available evidence hinted that a painting of some sort was the key as that was the only type of art every past victim had collected, but there was nothing that could help them clearly define what painting could have been in all of those collections in the public records. With no obviously better ideas, their best option at the moment was to examine the auction-house responsible for selling the latest victim's collections and take it from there.

Wandering around the auction house, she and Deanna covering separate parts of the building, Bela didn't take long to confirm that there wasn't that much here worth their interest. The paintings, furniture, and other items weren't without their charm even to a casual browser, but so far nothing here struck Bela as distinctly supernatural…

Rounding a corner, Bela's eyes fell on a distinctive-looking picture of a tall man wearing a Victorian suit, with swept-black dark hair and a solemn expression on his handsome face. There was nothing about the painting that said 'supernatural' in itself, but there was something about it that was causing a twinge in her arm where Castiel had left his handprint…

"You seem to be very interested in that piece."

"Mmm?" Bela glanced back at the speaker, revealing a woman about her age in a stylish black dress, looking between Bela and the painting with a critical eyebrow. "Just… assessing the style; interesting blend, all things considered. There are elements of the Grant Wood style, but there's some adherence to more classical styles of painting beyond just the outfit…"

"You know your art," the woman nodded.

"It's… been a passion of mine for a while."

"You're in the art business?"

"Professional amateur only," Bela shrugged. "It was a hobby for a while, but these days I work with… well, a close friend, assessing antiques of a certain type."

"Like this painting?" the woman asked, a certain tone to her voice that raised questions in Bela's mind even if she was reluctant to commit herself to anything.

"Among others," Bela said, deciding to offer this woman something more personal. "Bela Talbot."

"Sarah Blake," the woman replied, holding out her hand with a smile.

"Nice to- hold on; _Blake_?" Bela looked more urgently at the woman, mind flashing back to the _Supernatural_ novels they'd poured over when they'd first learned of Chuck's existence. "You did say you were Sarah Blake?"

"Yes," the woman looked curiously at Bela.

"Out of idle curiosity," Bela said, a slightly teasing smile on her face as she looked at the other woman, "what if I were to ask you about the painting of Melanie Merchant?"

"And… if I were to ask _you_ about Sam Winchester…?" Sarah asked, a tentative tone to her voice.

"I'd be able to tell you more about Dean," Bela shrugged, pretending not to register the brief expression of relief that crossed Sarah's face at that statement. "Look, I'm sorry to drag you into this-"

"If I learned anything from when I met Sam and Dean, it's that we can't choose when this kind of thing will get into our lives," Sarah cut Bela off, smiling slightly at the other woman before her expression became more serious. "So what's the situation here and how do you know the Winchesters?"

"Both can be a long story," Bela replied solemnly. "Let me just get my… partner… and we'll talk about this."

"Your partner?"

"She's…" Bela looked around the room for a moment before smiling and waving as her eyes finally fell on the older woman, raising her hand to wave. "Deanna?"

"Bela?" the older woman said, walking over to join the younger women before looking curiously at Sarah. "Who's this?"

"Sarah Blake," Bela smiled. "She knows Dean and Sam."

"Really?" Deanna smiled at Sarah, her manner quickly shifting from tense to relaxed. "You know my grandsons?"

" _Grand_ sons?" Sarah looked at Deanna in surprise.

"That's… complicated," Bela said, shooting a brief but half-serious glare at Deanna before looking at Sarah. "The point is, we think there's something about one of the paintings in this latest auction that might be dangerous…"

"Say no more," Sarah smiled in understanding, even as she continued to shoot confused glances at Deanna. "Just give me a few minutes to get the provenances together, and we can talk things over once I'm finished for the day."

"Sounds like a plan," Bela smiled back at the other woman, already relaxed at this turn of events. It might have been a while since Sarah had met the Winchesters, but from what Bela remembered of Chuck's books, she had handled herself well enough against a psychotic ghost, so hopefully she could still be an asset.

* * *

"So," Sarah asked, sitting opposite Bela in the small coffee shop that the two women had chosen for this talk while Deanna looked over the offered provenances back in their room, "care to fill me in on what Sam and Dean have been up to since that mess with the Marchants… maybe starting with how their _grandmother_ can be here looking that age?"  
  
"That's… an interesting question," Bela noted. "Let's just say it's a long story involving angels taking Dean back in time and me dragging Deanna into the future by accident."  
  
"Angels are a thing now?"  
  
"That's not even the weirdest thing we're dealing with at the moment," Bela smiled. "Would you believe that I've literally been to Hell and back with Dean?"  
  
"Hell?" Sarah repeated, looking apprehensively at the other woman. "Actual _Hell_?"  
  
"It involved demonic deals that had more behind them than any of us expected at first," Bela clarified grimly. "Believe me, ghosts are actually a minor problem compared to some of the stuff Sam and Dean have found themselves dealing with since they last saw you."  
  
"Right, but… Demon deals? Are we talking like Faust here?"  
  
"Basically a good analogy," Bela nodded. "You have to summon them in specific locations most of the time, but the rules are fairly straightforward; you contact the demons, they give you whatever you asked for, and then, ten years later, you get taken to Hell to suffer for all eternity."  
  
"Ah," Sarah nodded. "So… not a good way to get ahead, really?"  
  
"Not really," Bela said. "Dean only made his deal to save Sam's life, and my deal… well, we learned last year that there were people out there who _wanted_ me to make a deal, but that doesn't make up for me making the choice in the first place."  
  
Sarah simply sat in silence for a moment as she stared at Bela in a contemplative manner, before reaching over to give her hand a comforting squeeze.  
  
"I know the Winchesters," she explained, as Bela shot her an inquiring glance. "If they didn't approve of your reasons for making a deal like that… well, I doubt you'd be travelling with their grandmother."  
  
"It was… easier for her this way," Bela explained, even as she returned Sarah's squeeze with one of her own. "From Deanna's perspective, she went from a married woman with a grown daughter to a widow with two grown grandchildren in a world that have moved on forty years essentially overnight; we all felt that it was better for her to spend time adjusting to me rather than have Sam and Dean basically forcing her to face what she's lost."  
  
"Lost?" Sarah asked, before nodding in recollection. "Oh yeah, Sam mentioned that his mom was dead; was that Deanna's daughter?"  
  
"Good memory," Bela nodded in approval before she looked at Sarah in surprise. "They told you that?"  
  
"Sam… brought it up," Sarah nodded.  
  
"Congratulations."  
  
"Congratulations?"  
  
"It takes a lot for Winchesters to open up about anything; the fact that Sam told you that much about his life says a lot," Bela smiled.  
  
"Sam only mentioned that his girlfriend had died a few months earlier and their mom was dead; I didn't really feel like prying for anything more…"  
  
"That's fair enough," Bela nodded at the other woman in understanding. "Anyway, if we're talking about the past, I'm guessing Sam didn't tell you that both of those women were killed by a particularly powerful demon that had an interest in him for reasons we all only just learned about this year."  
  
"A demon?" Sarah repeated, her discomfort at personal disclosure forgotten in favour of this new information.  
  
"The demon's dead now, but that was one of the main reasons he never got back in touch with you," Bela clarified. "Shortly after the hunt where they met you, they got strong leads on both the demon that killed their mother and a weapon that could kill the demon in question, and then a few of their father's hunting contacts were killed by that demon's associates."  
  
"Oh," Sarah said, looking at Bela with new sympathy.  
  
"It… wasn't an easy time for any of them," Bela noted, her tone grim as she reflected on how the Winchesters must have felt at that point. "Add in the fact that the demon got away with their only viable weapon and their father died because _he_ made a deal to save Dean, and…"  
  
"Oh God," Sarah said, eyes widening at the thought. "And Sam _already_ had all that guilt…"  
  
"Yeah," Bela acknowledged grimly. "After all those losses, he probably decided it would be safer for you if he just stayed out of touch."  
  
"That's Sam," Sarah nodded in sympathetic recollection as she took another sip of her coffee. "He was so worried about my safety even before I knew what we were dealing with…"  
  
"That's _Winchesters_ for you," Bela corrected the other woman. "They try to keep us all safe from everything their world has to offer, and just can't acknowledge how we might think they're worth the risk."  
  
"They let _you_ stay in their lives."  
  
"Because I was part of this mess before they even met me… and, to be blunt, I was more of an enemy than an ally to them when I met them, so they weren't _entirely_ concerned with my safety at that point," the former thief admitted.  
  
"You were their enemy?"  
  
"It wasn't like I killed people, but I did steal a few things they needed to save people and just sold them on for myself," Bela acknowledged grimly, deliberately avoiding looking at Sarah as she admitted her own past actions against the brothers that had come to mean so much to both of them. "And then Dean and I were dragged back out of Hell by the same angel, I ended up spending time with them while we figured out what was happening to us, and then…"  
  
"And then you realised they weren't the illiterate, uncultured idiots you thought they were?"  
  
"You thought that?"  
  
"My dad did, but to be fair, they'd shown up for an art auction in leather jackets and Dean was just stuffing his face while talking."  
  
"Dean all over," Bela smiled wistfully before she looked at Sarah firmly. "But if we're talking about maintaining a relationship with the Winchesters, you need to understand one thing if I'm reading you correctly."  
  
"What?" Sarah asked, her body shifting to a more alert posture as she looked at Bela uncertainly.  
  
"The thing about the brothers Winchester…" Bela sat in silent thought for a moment, turning over her answer before she looked at Sarah. "You need to make it clear that you'll be there for them."  
  
"Make it clear?"  
  
"Make a clear and distinct effort to stay in touch with them," Bela clarified. "I'm not blaming you for failing to do it the first time around, considering that they had a lot on at that point in their lives that you had no way of knowing about, but if you want to get back in touch with them… you have to be sure you think they're worth it."  
  
"That's… difficult," Sarah said, sighing as she stared at her coffee. "I mean, I _like_ Sam, but I just… I don't want Sam to feel like he'd have to protect me if I go with him, and I'm not sure if he'd want to stay with me…"  
  
"The challenge of life with the Winchesters," Bela smiled. "I mean, Dean and I only see each other every couple of weeks at best with all the travelling we do in this work; the important thing is that we're doing what we can to _make_ that time. I'm not saying you need to make a decision now about whether you want to get back in touch with Sam, and I'll leave you my number when we go if you haven't come to a decision by then, but you _do_ need to think about what you want to do where he's concerned."  
  
"I'll… keep that in mind," Sarah replied, looking at Bela with a brief smile. "And… thanks."  
  
Looking at the other woman, Bela was suddenly struck by the notion that, if her thoughts were correct, she and Sarah may eventually have a lot more in common than just a shared strong attraction to one of the Winchester brothers…  
  
 _Of course, before we deal with that, we've got to find whatever's been killing people right now…_


	51. The Truth Behind the Portrait

Once she arrived back at her hotel room with Sarah, Bela was relieved to find Deanna sitting solemnly in a chair, their borrowed paperwork gathered on a table; Deanna wouldn't stop carrying out research when they were dealing with something this important unless she'd found something useful.

"You know what we're dealing with?" the ex-thief asked.

"I found it," Deanna nodded, turning over a piece of paper to display the same Victorian-era portrait that had drawn a twinge from Bela's handprint, the man's dark suit and hair somehow appearing far more solemn in the photograph than it had in person.

"That one?" Sarah looked at Deanna in surprise. "What made it stand out?"

"It ties in with my late husband's family records," Deanna explained. "The earliest recorded death in this painting's history was its artist, Henry Basilton, although that was obviously a more straightforward death than any of the others in our records; he was found beaten to death and dumped in a river. The first death in the manner that attracted the Campbells' interest occurred a decade or so after Basilton's demise, when the painting's subject, a young lord called Benjamin Harrison, was found dead in front of the painting with a knife lying alongside it, looking far older than he had just the day before."

"Hold on a minute…" Bela said, looking thoughtfully at Sarah for a moment as she noticed the similar expression of inspiration on the other woman's face. "Does this sound familiar to you?"

"A lord dies in front of a portrait of himself and seems to have aged overnight…" Sarah said, looking thoughtful for a moment before incredulous inspiration dawned. "Hold on; are we talking about _The Picture of Dorian Gray_ here? That's _real_?"

"Apparently," Deanna noted, turning the paper around to look at the picture more thoughtfully. "It just obviously didn't work entirely like Wilde depicted it, or the Dorian equivalent would have just stayed dead…"

"So what are we thinking here?" Bela asked. "The picture froze… Benjamin's age and then trapped his soul inside it when he tried to destroy it?"

"Which led to his soul being turned into some kind of psycho spirit?" Sarah asked. "Like Melanie was?"

"It's… not the worst description of the situation," Deanna smiled in approval at the young woman. "Granted, by all interpretations, Dorian was more hedonistic than psychotic, but try trapping a man in a painting for a few years, even if he gets out to some extent if our theory's correct, and I suppose we almost couldn't blame him for being cranky."

"We're talking about a man being cranky because he's spent decades stuck in a painting," Sarah noted, staring uncertainly up at the ceiling. "That is a _weird_ scenario."

"We're dealing with the supernatural, Miss Blake; 'weird' is the norm for us in this scenario," Deanna noted grimly.

"Point," Sarah noted thoughtfully. "So… what are we thinking here? When the Dorian equivalent tried to destroy the painting, he trapped himself in it instead and now he's being forced to relive his hedonistic lifestyle through each new owner?"

"Ghosts have done stranger things," Deanna acknowledged.

"And that might explain the gap between each death," Bela noted. "These people remain victim to the portrait's influence until they've owned it for as long as Dorian lived until _he_ fell under its influence, at which point…"

"He 'dies' all over again when he reaches the end of his original lifeline," Sarah finished grimly. "So is this a case where we just burn the painting, or do we need to find the subject?"

"As in find the subject's grave?" Deanna asked. "That… is a possibility, but from what I've seen of the records so far, I'm inclined to think that we're just dealing with a haunted painting."

"That's the thing about haunted paintings; they don't always adhere to the traditional rules," Bela explained. "If the artist put enough of themselves and the subject into the painting, the picture basically serves as the only thing that needs to be destroyed, whether or not the subject was cremated; cases like the Merchant painting only arise if the subject was so powerful that their essence could be divided between painting and remains, and I'm seeing nothing here to suggest that the painting wasn't the focus."

"Of course," Deanna noted grimly, "considering that I've never heard of paintings doing something like this, we're going to need to take more extreme measures to be sure that burning the painting does the job."

"How extreme are we talking?"

* * *

"OK," Sarah reflected, the three women standing around the nearest suitable graveyard, the painting leaning against the oldest grave they could find, "as far as extreme goes, this… doesn't seem that bad."  
  
Bela didn't want to agree with Sarah out loud in case she jinxed it, but as hunts went, she had to agree that this one had been almost simple. With Sarah as an 'inside woman', it had been easy for them to gain access to the auction house and find where the painting had been kept, and Sarah had even managed to distract a passing security guard by claiming that she was carrying out some private inventory for a personal friend to confirm that certain items were up for auction.  
  
"Ritual summonings are always a trickier prospect than some of the movies would have you think," Deanna said, as she studied the ritual in the book she was holding. "We need to get the terms exactly right, or we run the risk of summoning something more powerful than we want, or at least summoning the wrong ghost or spirit."  
  
"Add in the fact that we actually know one of the powers we're invoking for this thing, and I'm not sure how this is going to play out," the former thief noted as she glanced over the book.  
  
"You know… one of the powers?" Sarah looked at Bela in surprise.  
  
"Castiel," Bela smiled. "He's the angel who's working with Dean and Sam these days."  
  
"Hold on; they're _working_ with an _angel_?" Sarah looked at her in surprise. "I mean, they're good people, but… they have an _angel_ as a friend?"  
  
"It's a strange story," Bela acknowledged, smiling at the young woman as Deanna turned back to the book. "I'll fill you in once this is over."  
  
"Aziel, Castiel, Lamisniel, Rabam," the Winchesters' grandmother began. "Ehrley, et balam, ego vos conuro, per deum verum, per deum vivum… cuivos cuiaves eos supermontes et per eum, qui adam, et avum formovit. Et per eum…"  
  
As the ritual continued, thunder shook the air above them for a moment, drowning out the rest of Sam's words, before a man in a Victorian suit appeared above the painting, looking around the graveyard for a moment before his gaze settled on the women.  
  
"Well, hello, ladies," he smiled at the three, his gaze settling on Bela. "I'm-"  
  
"I know _exactly_ who you are," Bela cut him off  
  
"Or we've got a pretty good idea of who you are based on what you inspired, anyway," Sarah added. "An arrogant idiot who thought it was a good idea to condemn himself for eternity by making a deal to turn his painting into a… a horcrux?"  
  
"A what?" the man said, before turning around to glare at Deanna as she began to chant an exorcism. Before Bela or Sarah could do anything, the man raised his hand and a knife appeared in it, which he swiftly hurled at Deanna. Bela barely had time to throw herself at the Winchesters' grandmother and knock her to the ground before the knife struck, but the book fell from her hands and hit the damp ground before anyone could catch it.  
  
"I will _not_ go on to-" the man began.  
  
"Eat iron, jackass!" Sarah yelled, flexing her wrist so that a poker slid down her sleeve into her hand, which she subsequently swung at the ghost. When the poker hit the man, the ghost briefly dispersed into smoke, but Bela knew that wasn't going to stop him for long as she scrambled back to her feet. Deanna grabbed for the book and turned it around, but cursed as she saw the pages. A quick glance from Bela confirmed that the ink used to write this particular ritual had run in the damp; it would be clear enough once the pages had a chance to dry with a bit of careful 'doctoring' but right now they didn't have the time to do that.  
  
"Now that silly book's out of the way," the ghost said as it reformed, chuckling as Sarah stared defiantly back at him while adjusting her grip on the poker, "I would like to remind you all that I can offer a great deal to the interested party-"  
  
"We have some ideas about what you can offer," Bela said, raising her left hand firmly. "And I can safely state that we are _not_ interested in anything but putting you out of the way."  
  
With that said, she thrust her hand forward, and felt that same strange pulse of energy from the palmprint on her shoulder fly down her arm and strike the ghost. The spirit of the man who had inspired the tale of Dorian Gray reeled back his head and screamed in rage as his body glowed, before it finally exploded into light, the painting burning into nothing by his feet as he vanished.  
  
"Uh… how did that happen?" Sarah looked at Bela in surprise after a moment's silence had gone by as the three women just stared at the painting.  
  
"I thought we agreed that we would summon the spirit and then exorcise it?" Deanna glanced firmly at Bela. "Didn't Castiel say that overreliance on that mark could be risky?"  
  
"Mark?"  
  
"This mark," Bela explained, rolling up her sleeve to display the handprint. "Long story short, when Castiel rescued Dean and I from Hell, I was being turned into a demon on the spiritual level, but Castiel was able to cure me of the worst of it; the mark's still working to purge the last bit of demon from me, but I can occasionally tap into powers I might have gained if the transformation had been completed."  
  
"And… you used that now?" Sarah looked at her in surprise. "Why did you do that?"  
  
"On one level, it was because we needed an immediate solution to the current problem," Bela explained, smiling at the auction-house employee. "On another level, I did it because I trust you not to talk about it to other hunters who'd just freak out."  
  
"Not all as open-minded as you?"  
  
"Let's just say there are some people out there who recognise that they've only lasted in this life as long as they have because they know the core rules and love violence," Deanna said grimly.  
  
"Right…" Sarah said uncertainly, before turning her attention back to Bela. "So… you trust me with something that big?"  
  
"I trust you," the ex-thief repeated with a smile. "After all, how many people can say they've dated a Winchester who was being honest with them?"  
  
"It's not exactly _dating_ ; we only had dinner once before he had to destroy that painting-"  
  
"A dinner where he was using his own name and then spent several hours with you where you saw everything he did on a normal day and didn't freak out about it," Bela noted. "I appreciate that it was a long time ago for you, but compared to some of the people Sam and Dean meet in their hunts, he was exceptionally honest with you."  
  
"Uh… thanks," Sarah said, lost for anything better to say to that.  
  
"And speaking of my grandson," Deanna added, carefully getting to her feet as she smiled over at the younger women, "assuming this experience hasn't quelled your interest, would you be open to us letting him know that you'd be willing to make contact?"  
  
For a moment Sarah looked uncertainly between the other two women, a thoughtful expression on her face as she considered the offer, before she finally smiled and nodded.  
  
"What the hell?" she shrugged, her casual tone belied by the smile on her lips and the apprehension in her eyes that Bela recognised from looking at herself in the mirror every time she thought of Dean. "It's not every day you meet someone who saves lives on a daily basis."  
  
"And still manages to look that dashing while he's doing it," Bela added, smiling back at Sarah as she mentally crossed her fingers and hoped that she hadn't just made a mistake; Sam had certainly liked Sarah back when they'd met, but that was before the world introduced angels and Lucifer into their lives…


	52. Winchester & Blake Reunion

Even after facing what was essentially the 'ghost' of Dorian Gray the night before, somehow, sitting in the warm sunshine in the window of her family home, the phone in front of her was the scariest thing Sarah Blake had seen for years.

She wasn't some romance novel heroine who'd spent the last four years pining for her lost true love, and she'd certainly had other boyfriends since she had last seen the Winchesters, but the idea that she had another chance to talk to Sam Winchester after this long…

Well, she'd be lying if she denied that it gave her an interesting sensation in the pit of her stomach.

She appreciated that it had been a long time for both of them, and she had no real idea what he'd been through on a personal level, but the important thing was that she had the choice about how to deal with it. This wasn't like the last time, when she'd never managed to give Sam her number even if he left her his (and after healing Bela's story, she was prepared to bet that it wasn't his fault that the phone he'd told her about had gone dead a few days later); she had a fresh number, confirmation from two women that the Winchesters trusted that this number would stay valid, and time to use it.

 _Then again_ , she told herself, dialling the new number almost automatically, _with the life they live, sooner is better than later_ …

" _Hello_?" that familiar voice said on the other end of the line.

"Sam?"

" _Yeah, who_ …?" Sam began, before he trailed off on the other end of the line. " _Sarah_?"

"That's me," Sarah smiled.

" _How_ -?"

"I… ran into Bela and your grandmother while they were tracking another cursed painting," Sarah explained.

" _Ah_ ," Sam said. " _Another ghost_?"

"Actually, it was basically possessed by the spirit of Dorian Gray."

" _Dorian Gray_?" Sam repeated; in a small way, it felt nice to know that she could still surprise an experienced hunter like Sam. " _As in Oscar Wilde_?"

"Pretty much," Sarah confirmed with a smile. "Your grandmother thought that the Gray character was trapped in the painting after he tried to destroy it."

" _And how did that become a hunt_?"

"From what they showed me about its history, we're thinking that, while he was stuck in that painting, whoever was the 'original' Dorian Gray could reach out from the painting and influence its new owners once the painting was sold on."

" _Makes sense_."

"As much as anything does with this crazy world of yours," Sarah said, adding a teasing edge to her voice to show that she was teasing. "Anyway, it looks like Gray was possessing his painting's owners to make relive his lifestyle until they had lived with the painting for as long as he'd lived before he made the deal, at which point they or Gray would kill themselves and the cycle would start all over again."

" _Not… the weirdest thing we've ever encountered, but it's definitely up there_ ," Sam acknowledged. " _I take it they recognised your name and asked for your help finding which painting was the dangerous one_?"

"Pretty much," Sarah confirmed, before she took a moment to compose herself for what she was about to say. "And… after it was over… Bela suggested that I call you."

" _And… you went along with it_?" Sam sounded honestly surprised at that idea. " _After this long_?"

"What can I say?" Sarah smiled. "After everything Bela told me about what you and Dean have been doing since the last time we met, I… I wanted to see you."

" _What did she tell you_?"

"She told me about angels bringing Dean and her back from Hell and some time-travel incident that brought your grandmother into the present, but that was it," Sarah said. "I get that there's more to it than that, but she didn't want to tell me too much about what you've been up to before we had a chance to talk ourselves."

" _You… sure you want to do that_?"

"I was sure I wanted to give us a shot even after I learned what you did for a living; I'm not going to back off before we see if this chance could work."

"… _We're in the middle of a hunt right now, but it's… hopefully it shouldn't take more than a day or two_ ," Sam said, giving her the address of a small town she recognised. " _I'll let you know if things change, but if you want_ …"

"I'll be there by tomorrow evening," Sarah smiled, even as she kept her tone firm to make it clear that she wasn't going to accept an argument on his part.

* * *

A couple of days later, as Sarah sat in the small café she'd chosen for this particular 'date', she wondered what it said about her state of mind if she was waiting for a man whose lifestyle meant that there was a very strong likelihood that he'd miss their meeting because he was dead. She had faith that Sam and Dean could solve anything even before she'd heard more stories about them from Bela and their grandmother, but she had to be realistic; like any conventional cop, no matter how well-trained a hunter was 'on paper', all it would take was one bad day…  
  
"Hey," a familiar voice said, Sarah looking up with a smile as Sam sat down opposite her, his hair longer and shoulders broader than when she had met him almost four years ago even as he was still recognisably himself. "So… you came."  
  
"And so did you," Sarah smiled, before her expression became more solemn. "What happened?"  
  
"Since we last met, or in the last case?"  
  
"Let's start with the last case and take it from there."  
  
"Our last living dad figure nearly lost twenty-five years of his life trying to heal his current paralysis and Dean turned himself into an eighty-year-old man trying to save his life."  
  
"Dean was eighty?" Sarah said after taking a moment to process that statement, looking at Sam with a smile. "How was that?"  
  
"Aside from when he almost had a heart attack, it was kinda amusing," Sam admitted after a moment's thought. "Particularly when the maid compared him to her grandfather."  
  
"I can't imagine Dean took _that_ one well," Sarah smiled, remembering the elder Winchester's flirtatious manner.  
  
"Actually, he took it better than he might have done," Sam smiled. "He'd never admit to it, but ever since he and Bela made their relationship… well, as official as they'd ever make it… that's put a limit to the amount of flirting he'll do when he's with other women."  
  
"Interesting picture."  
  
"Yeah," Sam smiled, before looking solemnly at Sarah. "So, before we take this any further… do you want to hear more about what Dean and I have been through since we last saw you?"  
  
"Beyond Dean going to Hell and an angel bringing your grandmother into the future?" Sarah replied, resisting the urge to smile as she recognised that this was unlikely to be a smile-worthy conversation. "I'm all for that."  
  
Sam wasn't sure what prompted him to go along with that request, but as they sat at the table and ate their ordered baguette sandwiches, even as he kept a peripheral eye out for anyone paying particularly close attention to him and Sarah, he told her virtually every key detail that had happened in his life since the last time the two of them were in the same building together. Beginning with the tale of the hunt for the Colt that had ended with John Winchester's death, Sarah had soon learnt more about life as a Winchester than anyone outside of Bobby Singer had experienced directly, from the way Sam and Dean had reacted to the possibility of their first 'zombie' case all the way to the final revelation about Dean and Sam's current roles in the Apocalypse.  
  
"And… that's where we stand," Sam said at last, leaning back in his chair with a grim sigh. "We're facing the prospect of the literal Apocalypse, we're needed by both sides to be Michael and Lucifer's vessels to actually get anything done, and we don't have any real plan for how to stop it…"  
  
"My God…" Sarah said, reaching over to place a sympathetic hand on Sam's shoulder, feeling the inadequacy of anything else she could say in this situation even as she was resolved to say something. "Sam… I am _so_ sorry."  
  
"What have you got to be sorry about?" Sam looked back at her, even as he reminded himself not to be too bitter to someone who genuinely wanted to express her condolences. "I'm the one who got caught by one demon and then let myself get tricked into letting Lucifer out…"  
  
"You didn't _know_ -"  
  
"And how is that an excuse?"  
  
"It isn't," Sarah said firmly. "It just means you're human."  
  
"Human," Sam repeated, staring upwards in self-loathing. "I've spent the last couple of years being a willing pawn in a game to unleash the Devil himself-"  
  
"Everything started when a demon dropped you into an empty town in South Dakota; after that, the only way you could have stopped anything was if you knew what they wanted you to do. Ruby might have been a monster, but from everything you've told me, she knew how to play you; you shouldn't blame yourself for falling victim to someone else's manipulations when you… well, you weren't exactly in great shape during those months."  
  
"…Maybe," Sam conceded, staring at her for a moment. "But it's not easy to think that… you know, that I could…"  
  
Lost for anything else to say, Sarah leaned over to give him a brief kiss on the lips, almost scaring herself as she felt herself overwhelmed by the feelings that were suddenly as strong as they had been during those dark few days they'd spent dealing with the Merchant painting.  
  
"We all could," she said as she pulled back from Sam, smiling at the bemused expression on the younger Winchester's face at that action. "But you're still trying to fight it even after that kind of mistake; that's what's important."  
  
"You really think that?" Sam asked, looking almost hopeful as he looked back at her.  
  
"I do," Sarah replied, reaching over to give his arm a comforting squeeze. "You've been through a lot, but you aren't weak, Sam; you're just human. You and Dean have dealt with so much since I saw you the last time; I believe that you'll come through this."  
  
"…Thanks," Sam said, nodding at Sarah with a wistful smile. "So… does this mean… if we get the chance…?"  
  
"You want to catch up?" Sarah finished for him, returning Sam's wistful smile with a welcoming grin. "I'm up for that if you are."  
  
"Good," Sam nodded, the joy in his eyes saying more than any words he could utter. "I'd… I'd like that."  
  
Sarah knew from the moment she'd asked Sam for this meeting that it wouldn't be easy to find the time for this kind of relationship. Considering that she didn't plan to become a full-time hunter and Sam was clearly still committed to his and Dean's plan to fight the planned Apocalypse, there were going to be limits on how much time they could spend with each other, and that was before she started thinking about the fact that Sam would do his best to keep her away from that part of his life.  
  
Still, no matter what problems they might face later on, all that mattered right now was that they had a chance to find something new; that was more than she could have ever expected of her association with Sam at just this time last week.


	53. The Convention

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another episode rewrite, as we jump back to Bela's POV while she and Deanna join Dean and Sam on a very unconventional 'hunt'…

Driving along the route that Deanna had traced earlier, Bela wished that she had a clearer idea what she was actually about to be dealing with. When the Winchesters had called earlier, all Dean had been able to tell her had been that something had happened to Chuck and they'd been called by some girl to warn them that he needed the brothers and Bela to help them deal with some kind of crisis, and Deanna had naturally insisted on coming along once she'd learned that her grandsons were going into trouble. According to Dean, their most recent hunt had led to the discovery that a Trickster who'd bothered them a couple of times before Dean went to Hell was actually the disguised archangel Gabriel, who'd decided to run away from the war between his brothers, but Dean's words made it clear that they couldn't count on him to give them any help in this upcoming conflict, which meant they were still going up against Lucifer with only Castiel as an angelic asset.

_Not a perfect situation, but at least things haven't become any worse than they were when this whole Apocalypse mess started…_

As the car pulled up in front of the hotel that the Winchesters had told them about, Bela smiled in relief when she saw the Impala pulling up practically alongside them; anything that prompted Chuck to get back in touch with them had to be difficult, but at least they were all ready to confront it…

As she ran for the main entrance, Bela told herself not to think too much about the fact that she was running past at least three identical Impalas; it would be a remarkable coincidence, but it wasn't like it was a completely impossible one, and it didn't seem like it would be a problem.

"Chuck!" Sam said, his eyes falling on the pacing Prophet in front of the hotel.

"Guys?" Chuck looked at them in shock. "What are you doing here?"

"You told us to come," Dean said.

"Well, you told them, and they passed the message on to _us_ …" Deanna clarified, looking at the younger man with a more probing stare. "But you didn't, did you?"

"You didn't?" Sam looked at the author in surprise. "But I got a text from your phone, this address, life or death situation; any of this ringing a bell?"

"No, I-I didn't send you a text," Chuck said, shaking his head awkwardly.

"We drove all night!" Dean groaned testily.

"I'm sorry!" Chuck said urgently. "I don't understand what could… oh no."

"What?" Deanna asked.

"SAM!" a voice suddenly screamed, prompting all five people in the lobby to look up at a young woman at the top of the stairs in front of the hotel, dressed in a sleeveless blue sweater vest over a short-sleeved checked shirt and a short brown skirt. "You made it!"

"Oh, ah, Becky, right?" Sam asked.

"You remembered!" the woman looked at him with a grin as she hurried down the stairs, her tone shifting to a more seductive one. "You been thinking about me?"

"I'm sorry, but who _are_ you?" Deanna asked, looking in confusion at the woman.

"Remember how we told you that we learned the location of the Michael Sword after Lucifer got out?" Dean explained, looking at the first two women with an awkward smile. "Well… now you've met our source."

"Your 'source'?" Becky repeated, looking indignantly at Dean before turning to study the other two women in a critical manner. "And who are… hold on; you're Bela Talbot, right?"

"…Yes," Bela conceded after a moment, lost for a better response.

"Oh my _God_!" Becky smiled, walking over to give Bela a surprising hug, earlier suspicions clearly forgotten. "Chuck told me you'd come back with Dean, but look at you… you know, you're basically _exactly_ how I pictured you, you know that?"

"Pictured me?" Bela asked.

"Is this about those books?" Deanna looked at Becky.

"Chuck's books?" Becky confirmed with a smile. "Of course it's about them… and who are you?"

"You don't know that already?"

"I… well, it's a big plot twist, even if I'm not writing officially any more," Chuck replied with a brief shrug. "Writer's prerogative, you know; don't give away the personal twists too soon to anyone."

"Personal twists?" Becky repeated.

"I'm Deanna Campbell," Deanna explained, walking over to give Becky a cool handshake as she indicated the Winchesters. "I'm their grandmother."

Becky blinked.

"…Grandmother," she repeated. "You… you're Mary's mom?"

"Yes," Deanna said, holding up a firm hand as she looked at the young woman. "And say _anything_ about that and you will be _extremely_ sorry."

"Oh… sorry, I didn't mean to- but _how_ are you here?" Becky asked.

"It was a freak coincidence more than anything else," Deanna shrugged. "Dean and Bela were sent back in time, Bela was looking after me after I was hurt, and when the two of them were sent back to the present…"

"You got dragged along too?" Becky smiled, before she looked at Chuck with a grin. "They have family; that's great!"

"Yeah…" Chuck shrugged. "It's funny, really; bring in the angels- bring in Castiel in particular- and everything gets… I mean, most of the time it's still clear, but once or twice it's something else…"

"Getting back to the point," Deanna cut, glaring firmly at Becky, "assuming that you were the one who called my grandsons here, _why_ did you do that?"

"I thought they'd want to see this," Becky replied, her grin broadening once again.

"See what?" the Winchesters said simultaneously.

"Oh my God!" Becky grinned. "I love it when they talk at the same time!"

"Hey Chuck!" a voice called from the top of the stairs, revealing a heavy-set man with a clipboard. "Come on, pal; it's showtime."

"Showtime?" Bela repeated, looking at Chuck as Becky ran excitedly up the stairs.

"Guys…" Chuck swallowed awkwardly. "I'm sorry… for everything."

Walking apprehensively up the stairs, the four hunters were immediately intercepted by an overweight man who was dressed almost identically to Dean himself.

"Hey Dean," the man said, raising the glass in his left hand as he grinned. "Looking good."

"Who the hell are you?" Dean looked at the other man.

"I'm Dean too," the man replied, still grinning even as he looked at Dean with the expression of someone explaining that the sky was blue.

"What?" Bela said, looking around to see who else was in the room, just as another man walked past them dressed as some kind of bulky scarecrow with a face that looked like it was meant to be made of stitched skin.

"Uh-oh, it's Sam and Dean!" the scarecrow-man said, waving his scythe in Sam's face. "Ooh, I'm in trouble now! Have fun, you two!"

"What," Dean stated, turning to look at Chuck even as Becky grinned unapologetically behind them. Turning back to assess the group of people around them, Bela had no idea how the brothers would feel about this; she could see a few people who were clearly ghosts of some sort, a couple of clowns, people with black demon eyes, a young woman with blood coming from her eyes, a skinny woman dressed in a manner that suggested she was impersonating Bobby, a man with a mullet and a sleeveless checked shirt, tables of merchandise such as model Impalas, mugs with 'Route 666' on the side, and copies of Chuck's books…

"Hold on… are they _me_?"

"What?" Dean said, following Bela's gaze to see her staring incredulously at a group of at least four women wearing outfits he found kind of familiar, ranging from a dark blue sleeveless dress to a light brown leather jacket and dark trousers.

" _Bela_ has _fans_?" Sam looked incredulously at Chuck.

"You have people here dressed up as ghosts, and the idea that people dress as _me_ is odd?" Bela looked sharply at the younger Winchester.

"What even _is_ this?" Deanna asked sharply.

"The first ever _Supernatural_ convention!" Becky grinned. "Isn't this great?"

"It's certainly… _something_ ," Bela said, stuck for a better response as she stared incredulously at the small group.

It might not exactly be public acclaim, and it certainly wasn't the kind of fame she'd expected to encounter, but the idea that she had _fans_ …

"Actually," she said, suddenly looking at Sam as another thought came to her, "now that we're here, I've been meaning to ask; how are things with Sarah?"

"Sarah?" the Winchesters said simultaneously.

"Sarah?" Becky put in, looking at Sam with a new sense of dejection. "As in… Sarah Blake? From the Marchant painting case?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded, shooting Bela a brief grateful smile before he looked back at Becky. "Bela and Grandma ran into Sarah on a case involving the ghost of Dorian Gray, and…"

"And it seemed like as good an opportunity as any to put in a good word for my grandson with a nice girl," Deanna cut in with a satisfied grin.

"Right…" Sam said, looking awkwardly at his time-displaced grandmother. "I have no idea how to feel about that."

"Because it didn't go well?" Becky asked hopefully.

"Actually, it was… nice," Sam admitted, looking at Deanna and Bela with a tentative smile. "I mean, this isn't exactly a great time for me to put down real roots, but I'm going to keep an eye out for anything in her area, and we'll… well, we're going to see we can-"

"OK, that's great, but there's a lot happening _here_ that you _have_ to see!" Becky said urgently, grabbing Sam's arm before he could say more as though she just didn't want to hear it. "Come on, Chuck's going to give the opening speech soon!"


	54. The Talbots

"Welcome to the first annual Supernatural convention," the man who was apparently the convention manager said, addressing a room full of people wearing variations of Dean and Sam's usual attire mixed in with some people who Bela had to concede had done a good job at duplicating monsters they'd only ever read about. "At 3.45 in the Magnolia room we have the panel, 'Frightened little boy, the secret life of Dean'. And at 4.30 there's the 'Homoerotic subtext of Supernatural'."

Glancing over at Deanna, Bela was pleased to note that she wasn't the only one trying to hide her amusement at the second announcement; Dean and Sam were obviously just deeply disturbed at the implication of the second part in particular, but she and Deanna were removed enough to find it amusing even if they disagreed with the idea.

"Oh, and of course the big hunt starts at 7pm sharp," the manager added, prompting a round of applause from the audience before he waved the applause. "But right now, right now I'd like to introduce the man himself. The creator, the writer of the _Supernatural_ books; the one, the only, Carver Edlund!"

With those last words, the manager stepped aside as Chuck timidly walked onto the stage, the Winchesters staring blankly at the secret Prophet from the back of the room while Deanna and Bela fought the urge to smile and Becky clapped in an almost excessively enthusiastic manner

"OK," Chuck said, after a brief moment of feedback from the microphone. "OK, good, this isn't nearly as awkward as I…"

He paused for a moment, muttering something about a dry mouth as he took a sip of water from a bottle near a poster, before he asked for questions and was greeted with every hand in the room going up, picking one hand at random.

"Hey, Mr Edlund," the young man said, apparently dessed as a particularly thin Sam. "Uh...big fan. I was just wondering, where'd you come up with Sam and Dean in the first place?"

"Oh, ah, I… it just came to me," Chuck said uncomfortably, even if that response was enough of a cue for the rest of the room to raise their hands. "Yeah, the hook man?"

"Ah yeah," the aforementioned figure said, wearing a strange hook over his right hand and speaking with a surprisingly heavy German accent. "Why, in every fight scene, Sam and Dean are having their gun knocked away by the bad guy? Why don't they keep it on some kind of bungee?"

"That's actually a good point," Bela noted, smiling over at Dean in a low voice.

"Shut up," Dean muttered, as Chuck muttered a vague acknowledgement of the scenario described.

" _Ja_ , follow up," the 'Hook Man' interjected. "Why can't Sam and Dean be telling that Ruby is evil? I mean she is clearly manipulating Sam into some kind of moral lapse. It's obvious, _nein_?"

Looking over at Sam, Bela felt a moment of sympathy for the obvious pain and anger on his face at the reminder of that particularly bleak period of his life, pain only shifting to embarrassment when Becky suddenly marched forward to berate the hook man's criticism.

"OK, OK, just… OK, it's OK," Chuck said, waving Becky down. "So, next question… yeah, you."

"Yeah," another fan said, this man looking particularly young. "At the end of the last book, Dean goes to hell. So, what happens next?"

"Oh," Chuck said, looking awkwardly back at Sam and Dean before he addressed the rest of the room. "Well, there lies an announcement, actually. You're all going to find out; thanks to a wealthy Scandinavian investor, we're going to start publishing again."

Amid the sudden uproar of enthusiasm at that revelation, Bela was relieved to see that she wasn't the only one who found that particular revelation amusing; as uncomfortable as it was to consider their hunting lifestyle as something people would enjoy, Deanna clearly agreed with her that it was nice to see people appreciate what the Winchesters did for the world, even if they didn't believe it was all real.

* * *

"So," the girl asked, looking appreciatively at Bela's clothes as she sipped a 'yellow-eyed cooler', "what got you into the series?"  
  
"Why do you ask?" Bela looked inquiringly at the other woman. With Dean and Sam talking with Chuck while Deanna looked into some of the merchandise available about the series, Bela had given into curiosity and gone to hang out with the small collection of young women who appeared to be her 'fans', and had been relieved to find that she was right.  
  
"Well… look, if I'm crossing a line here, I'm sorry, but you're a lot better-dressed than we are," the woman explained, indicating her own coat. "Most of us Talbots just improvise when we're coming together, but I work in a shop, and I know the difference between brand design and just trying to _look_ like you're wearing brand design."  
  
"Ah," Bela nodded in understanding, looking over her own clothes with a smile; she didn't think much about fashion any more, considering that she'd stopped doing the kind of jobs where she got paid at the end of it, but she supposed that her clothes were a bit more expensive than the average fan would wear to something like this. "Well, to cut a long story short, I work in antiques, and… let's just say I met someone while tracking a particular artefact who showed me a side of life I never imagined."  
  
"He was a fan?"  
  
"Lived and breathed them, you might say," Bela confirmed, smiling at the misleading nature of that phrase. "He helped me with a couple of details based on what he'd read in the books, I checked them out because I got curious, and… well, here we are."  
  
"They're that accurate?" the woman asked. "I mean, I always admired the mythological detail, but… y'know, you get caught up in the thrills…"  
  
"Quite," Bela said, before deciding to deflect that question by addressing the real question that had brought her here. "So… Talbots?"  
  
"The nice thing about starting a particular fandom; we can call ourselves whatever," the girl shrugged. "We toyed with something relating to her first name, but that started all kinds of debates about whether we should use Bela or Abby, but even if we don't know for _sure_ that Talbot's her surname, at least there isn't an obvious alternative."  
  
"It's just so… _tragic_ , isn't it?" one of the other girls said, looking sadly around the group. "Everything she went through because of her dad, and the Winchesters never even got the chance to try and help her with it before her deal came through…"  
  
"But… well, it's difficult, isn't it?" Bela noted, reminding herself that these women had no way of knowing they were talking about a real person. "I mean, what she did to Dean and Sam…"  
  
"Yeah, stealing the Colt like that was a bitchy move, but c'mon, she was _desperate_!" the second girl said firmly. "It took Dean a lot of effort to hide how scared he was of going to Hell from Bobby and Sam, and Bela had spent a decade trying to convince herself that she'd find some other way out after living a life where the people she should have been able to trust the most had just kept on hurting her! Who knows what she went through before that thing with the rabbit's foot? She wasn't perfect, but she was screwed up for good reasons!"  
  
That decade of training herself to suppress her emotions was the only thing that stopped Bela completely breaking down in tears or laughter at the situation in front of her; complete strangers were defending her actions when all they knew about her was what she'd done in the last few months of her life _before_ she went to Hell…  
  
She had no idea if she should call these women insane or give them all a hug for having that kind of faith in her; even if they thought she was a fictional character, it was touching to hear that they had that much faith in her.  
  
Noticing that a small stand nearby had a few of the books on display, Bela scanned the titles before she picked up one named _Mystery Spot_ ; the back cover talked about Sam experiencing a Tuesday where Dean died again and again, but there was also a reference in the back to an incident involving Bobby Singer and dream root that sounded like one of the cases where she'd played a part. Opening the book, she smiled as she found herself reading about the time when the Winchesters called her for her help, her eyes widening as she found herself reading about her coming to Sam in a beige trenchcoat and taking it off to reveal lingerie.  
  
It was easy enough to recognise that this had to be a dream, since she'd never done _anything_ like that, but the idea that _Sam_ had been dreaming about her before she'd stolen the Colt…  
  
Putting the book down, she took a moment to process that revelation before concluding that it wasn't worth focusing on; after everything they'd been through since she and Dean came back from Hell, she wouldn't go so far as to label herself a 'sister' figure to Sam, but she was fairly sure Sam wasn't interested in anything like that with her even before she put him back in touch with Sarah…  
  
She was saved from the moment of awkward self-analysis when she heard a loud scream from outside the conference hall, prompting her to put down the book and run towards the sound followed by the 'Talbots'. As she reached the door, she found a young woman surrounded by a collection of men wearing what she could only think of a variation of Dean and Sam's 'government agent suits', the woman talking about something she'd seen while all of the men listened urgently to her story.  
  
"They started the game already?"  
  
"Game?" Bela looked at the Talbot curiously.  
  
"Oh yeah, the conference set up this whole fake hunt contest for the Dean and Sam fans," the young woman explained. "I looked into signing up for it, but they only accepted male teams; seriously, Dean and Sam can hunt with Jo and get some help from Bela and Ruby, even if I think we can all agree Ruby's going to be evil, but try and get involved in these things when you're a girl and it's like the organisers don't even _care_ about equality…"  
  
"Right," Bela said, glancing around the room to try and find Sam and Dean, wondering how the Winchesters were reacting to this development.

* * *

"Seriously," Dean said, sitting at the bar and staring in exasperation at the drink in his hands, "how did our lives _become_ this?"  
  
"We hunt demons and monsters, exorcise ghosts, and our best ally against the apocalypse is an angel who ditched Heaven because he believed we could do something when we've done nothing but screw up," Sam noted as he sat beside Dean. "The idea that we're the subjects of a series of novels is… OK, it's still weird, but it's not _that_ weird."  
  
"Some guy makes a goddamn _living_ writing about all our pain and suffering; how is that fair?" Dean groaned. "Not sure if that sucks more than the fact that he's basically pigeon-holed himself into just writing about us and I can't even really hate him for it because he was really sorry when he found out we were real…"  
  
"In Chuck's defence," a familiar voice said from behind the two brothers, "as I understand it, he didn't exactly _choose_ to become a prophet."  
  
"Yeah, I can get that," Dean said, glancing back at his grandmother with a brief smile as she sat down between the Winchesters. "Still sucks."  
  
"Oh, I don't know," Deanna smiled thoughtfully. "I think they're rather good."  
  
" _Excuse me_?" Dean looked sharply at her.  
  
"Oh, I obviously skip over the parts where you're… full-frontal, as I believe the expression goes…" Deanna acknowledged with an embarrassed chuckle before she continued, "but when you learn that your grandsons are inspirations, why wouldn't you want to know more?"  
  
"Inspirations?" Sam repeated in surprise.  
  
"Inspirations?" Dean said simultaneously. "We're caught in a river of crap that would send most people howling to the nut house, and that's meant to be _inspiring_ to people?"  
  
"Because," Deanna pointed out with a smile, "as you just said, you're not most people, and not only have you not run 'howling to the nut house', but you're even doing what most hunters never dare to do and exploring long-term relationships."  
  
"…Sarah?" Sam looked at his grandmother in surprise. "It's only been one actual… well, _date_ so far…"  
  
"And I like to think I've come to know my grandsons over the last year, Sam," Deanna smiled at him. "You'd never have let her have that much of you if you weren't at least thinking about giving her more, and I think the fact that Dean hasn't noticed the 'ghost girl' sitting at the other end of the bar says it all about where he is with Bela."  
  
Glancing in the direction his grandmother had indicated, Dean had to acknowledge that she had a point. The 'woman in white' at the end of the bar might be wearing a lot of white make-up to add to her ghostly image, but that didn't hide the fact that she was actually fairly hot…  
  
 _And I didn't even think about that before Gran brought it up_ , Dean thought to himself, smiling slightly as he turned that idea over.  
  
There had been a few women he had fonder memories of than others- Lisa and Cassie sprung to mind, and even Jo might have been up there if Ellen and what had happened to her dad hadn't been a factor- but he'd never actually _stayed_ with them long enough to consider monogamy as something that lasted for more than a few weeks… but it had been the better part of a year since he and Bela first had sex and he didn't think he'd even _looked_ at another woman that way since their first night together.  
  
It didn't make him feel that much better after he'd heard people quoting some of his own words from what should have been a private conversation between him and Sam about John Winchester's last words, but it was an interesting thing to realise about himself…  
  
"For the last time I'm not making this up, OK?" a voice said from the other end of the bar. "She's upstairs, a real live dead ghost!"  
  
 _Damnit_ … Dean mused to himself; that could just be someone acting in that LARP thing, but that line didn't exactly sound like someone was acting as him or Sam.  
  
Without saying a word, he got up and walked after the source of the noise, followed by his brother and grandmother, joining the two young men at the end of the bar.  
  
"I'm sure it was just one of the ghost actors," the other 'fan' said, this man possessing particularly thick brown hair and wearing a copy of Dean's leather jacket.  
  
"Who beat the hell out of me and then vanished?" the first speaker said; Dean thought he recognised this guy as the one who'd asked Chuck what happened in the series after Dean went to hell, except that now the boy had a bleeding ear.  
  
"What are you talking about?" Deanna asked, prompting some surprised stares from the two 'actors'.  
  
"Uh… could we just have some privacy… ma'am?" the first speaker said, clearly lost for what a woman of Deanna's age was doing here or how to talk to her, before he turned back to his friend, "Look, I'm getting out of this and you should do the same."  
  
With that he turned and left the area, his friend hurrying after him trying to convince him to come back, leaving the Winchesters to exchange glances with their Campbell grandmother.  
  
"What do you think?" Sam asked.  
  
"I think that guy's too bad an actor to be acting," Dean noted, looking back at his grandmother and Sam. "OK, the story for this LARP thing is that this woman ran an orphanage here last century before she killed four kids and herself; you two see if you can check with the actual staff about whether that story's true and I'll try and find Bela."  
  
"Why us?" Sam asked.  
  
"Because I look like I'd be genuinely curious about something like that rather than part of this game, correct?" Deanna asked with a smile.  
  
"Bingo," Dean said. "If we're doing this, might as well try it with someone who won't look like they're cheating in the game."

* * *

"A woman kills her kid, three other kids, and herself, and then spends the next century haunting the site of her crimes," Dean mused, turning over the information his grandmother had picked up from the reception desk staff. "Damn… every time you think people can't get more screwed up than they are…"  
  
"Are we sure about that?"  
  
"What?" Dean looked at Sam.  
  
"I don't know, maybe it's just running into Sarah again…" his brother shrugged uncertainly. "I mean… you remember the Marchants, right?"  
  
"…Right," Dean acknowledged his brother's point (looking back, he still wasn't sure if he should feel guilty about that or not; he'd exorcised a ghost, but it had been the ghost of a guy who'd been trying to control something dangerous after spending almost a century of death being blamed for someone else's crimes).  
  
"What about the Marchants?" Bela asked.  
  
"Thought you read that case?"  
  
"I recognised Sarah's name; that doesn't mean I remembered everything about it."  
  
"Long story short, we thought a painting was haunted by the ghost of a father who killed his wife, sons, and adopted daughter, but it turned out he was actually keeping the daughter's ghost kinda contained because she was the killer."  
  
"Oh my…" Deanna said, before looking at Sam. "And you think something similar is happening here?"  
  
"I think it's… something we should remember, anyway," Sam noted awkwardly. "Like I said, maybe I'm making a bigger thing of it because seeing Sarah again made me think…"  
  
"Nothing wrong with thinking in this game," Dean shrugged.  
  
"The question is _how_ we check it out," Bela noted, looking ruefully at the three people who'd somehow made her part of their strange family. "If we're right, we can't be sure what happened with the children, and if we're wrong and the public version is the truth, we run the risk of making it worse…"  
  
"If it helps, I did a quick check with the County Historical Society," Sam put in. "One of the dead kids was Leticia's own son, and he was found scalped."  
  
"Scalped?" Bela repeated, eyes narrowing thoughtfully. "As in what Indians stereotypically do to prisoners?"  
  
"And kids back then would have been playing Cowboys and Indians…" Dean mused, sighing in frustration. "It's good, but it's not _proof_ ; we torch Leticia and she's innocent, the kids will run wild, but I don't want to torch kid ghosts before we're sure…"


	55. Redeeming Leticia

For a woman who was technically forty years behind the times, it was amazing to Bela how easy it was for Deanna to talk to people into doing whatever she urgently needed them to do. She attributed it to her experience as a teacher giving her a clear idea of how to get people to do things when they didn't want to deal with work, but Bela privately reflected that it was just Deanna's open nature encouraging people to please her for reasons Bela wasn't sure she'd ever manage to define.

Still, whatever the nature of Deanna's 'trick', she'd managed to find them a room for the séance that they were about to perform. Lighting the last candle, she sat back and watched as Deanna and Sam chanted the relevant ritual from the book the older woman had recently found in the Campbell archives while Dean and Bela sat on either side of the impromptu circle they'd drawn on the floor. After a few moments, the spirit of a young woman in a dirt-stained white blouse and dark skirt appeared in the middle of the circle, her features initially twisted in the familiar manner of vengeful spirits and her skin the colour of chalk, before there was a brief glow and the image shifted to a lighter colour with rich brown hair, wearing a white blouse and black skirt with a pained expression on her face.

"Who…?" the woman said, looking around herself in confusion. "What… what happened?"

"Leticia Gore?" Deanna asked, moving over to stand in front of the ghost, looking sympathetically at the woman. "We have to talk to you about your son."

"My… son?" the woman said, looking at Deanna in surprise. "Lucas? But he's… he was… oh God…"

"Ah crap," Dean said in a low voice, looking apprehensively at his grandmother as Leticia flickered to her earlier appearance, before she shook her head and returned to 'normal'.

"I… take it you remember what happened to him?" Deanna asked, fingers crossed as she looked anxiously between the ghost and her assorted family.

"They _scalped_ him," Leticia said, looking ahead of herself in anguish. "They were _children_ … they were all _children_ … and they _scalped_ him…"

"Hold on; _they_?" Dean looked at the ghost in shock. "All _three_ of them did it?"

"I had to stop it," the woman said, shaking her head anxiously. "I couldn't let them do it again… but Lucas was… I couldn't…"

As the spectral woman flickered back to her original appearance, Bela quickly pinched out one of the candles and rubbed out one of the lines making up the circle that kept her contained, the ghost rapidly diving out of the circle and vanishing into nothing.

"She was losing it, right?" Dean glanced at his grandmother.

"That ritual can only help the ghost stay in control of themselves for a certain amount of time," Deanna confirmed. "It's useful for getting insight into what motivates vengeful spirits when you're short on resources, but the length of time it works also depends on their mental stability before everything went wrong."

"So… she could only talk to us for a few minutes because she was mad with grief before she died?" Sam asked.

"Basically, anyway; this isn't the kind of thing you can establish a precise scale for, for obvious reasons."

"It lasted long enough for us at the moment, anyway," Bela noted. "What are we going to do about this now?"

"If the kids are the problem, we just need to burn their bodies and it's all over," Dean noted.

"Might I suggest we do that _without_ burning Lucas Gore's in the process?" Deanna put in. "I mean, if Leticia's done all this because these boys killed him in the first place, she might be particularly angry if we made him passon before the other children have ceased to be a threat."

"Should be simple enough," Dean noted, nodding at his grandmother before glancing at Bela. "Shall we?"

"Why not?" Bela replied with a smile.

It might not be anyone's idea of a conventional date, but she and Dean got to spend so little time together that she'd take whatever she could get…

 _And when did I become such a sap_?

* * *

"Amazing what inspires people sometimes, isn't it?"  
  
"In what way?" Dean looked curiously at Bela as they walked through the graveyard behind the hotel, quickly identified thanks to Bela's en-route research into the address they had received from 'Chuck' after receiving his apparent request for help.  
  
"I mean, most of the people involved in setting up this convention think it's all fictional, and yet they went to all the trouble of finding a hotel that turned out to be legitimately haunted based on all of the 'rules' in Chuck's work," Bela smiled. "Say what you like about the quality of the work, but it does inspire a lot of people."  
  
"Yeah, who think we don't exist," Dean pointed out, his initial curiosity shifting to a scowl. "God, if these people knew the _crap_ we have to put up with every day was real…"  
  
"Actually, I think they'd appreciate it more."  
  
"Changed your tune there, haven't you?"  
  
"I thought we-" Bela began, stopping to turn and glare at Dean, only to be caught off-guard by the surprising tenderness on his face as he looked at her.  
  
"Just meant… I mean, I know we're past the point where anyone could think you're just staying here because of our freaky Cas-created link, and I get that you've been helping Grandma adapt to everything, but you're…" Dean shrugged awkwardly. "You're used to better stuff than this…"  
  
"And I realised since I started spending time with you that I was looking for nice 'stuff' because I didn't have anything else in my life," Bela observed, leaning over to give Dean a brief kiss. "You're not a perfect man, Dean Winchester, but whatever you might think about yourself, you _are_ a good man… and I think I'd forgotten that there were men like you out there before we got out of Hell."  
  
"Even after what I did there?" Dean asked, his voice so low that Bela was sure a part of him didn't even want her to hear the question.  
  
"Even then," Bela affirmed, moving in front of Dean to give him a longer, albeit still comparatively chaste, kiss. "You went through a terrible experience and you haven't allowed it to completely define who you are, Dean; that says more about you than anything else, in my book."  
  
"…Thanks," Dean said, giving her another brief smile before he tightened his grip on the shovel in his hands. "Let's… get going, huh?"  
  
After spending the better part of a year either in Dean's presence or thinking about him, it was easy enough for Bela to realise that he didn't want to talk right now, but the fact that he'd been willing to open up that much meant more to her than she could have ever imagined.  
  
Granted, she still wasn't entirely sure if Dean was secretly touched at being seen as a hero or just angry at the idea of people seeing him as a hero without knowing the truth about him, but so long as he was focusing on finding these bodies, she could help him explore that particular issue later.  
  
"Here," Dean said, torch focusing on a collection of graves that shared the same date of death, going back to exactly a century ago. "So how do we do this? One digs and one guards?"  
  
"Considering the circumstances, it's probably safest if we both start digging and take it from there," Bela smiled, indicating the shovels in their hands. "Shall we?"  
  
"Why not?" Dean replied, shrugging as he tossed down his bag and brought out the shovel. "Let's do this."  
  
It took a few minutes to establish a suitable pattern, but eventually the two Hell escapees had established a pattern to their digging, the two of them working on the two furthest graves on their own before digging through the third one together. Once or twice Bela thought that she heard something passing by nearby, but whatever she heard never actually came close enough to be a threat, so she felt safe assuming that Sam and Deanna were keeping the ghosts under control back at the hotel.  
  
" _Damn_ …" Dean smiled, as his shovel hit wood in the final grave, looking up at Bela with a smile.  
  
"Everything well?" Bela asked, noting his smile.  
  
"Just… you're perfect, you know that?"  
  
"Pardon?" Bela looked at Dean in surprise.  
  
"I mean, we're both screw-ups however you look at it, but we both got dragged out of Hell together, you've stood up to your demon dad who was an asshole _before_ he went to Hell, everything I thought I knew about my parents' lives pre-me was wrong… but in the end, we're making a whole new family here that's kicking ass, taking names, and working on stopping the devil himself."  
  
"Even if we haven't done it yet?"  
  
"We're holding our own, we've taken War off the board, and nobody's dead yet; I'd call that pretty good considering what we're up against."  
  
"True," Bela conceded, before she slammed her own shovel down to strike the coffin below her. "Well then, let's get this dealt with so we can get back to the big game."  
  
"Amen," Dean confirmed, the two scraping the last of the dirt away from the coffin. With all three coffins now exposed, Dean set to work opening the coffins while Bela headed back to Dean's back to get out the salt and lighter fluid, proceeding to pour the relevant incendiaries over the first exposed body while Dean moved on to the next one.  
  
Looking down at the first body as she poured the lighter fluid over it, Bela shuddered.  
  
"What's up?" Dean looked at her curiously.  
  
"It's just…" Bela began, before she sighed. "Do you ever wonder how this happens?"  
  
"The ghost thing?"  
  
"How kids can do… what they did to another kid," Bela clarified, as she moved to the next grave along. "I mean, he would have… they were only _kids_ …"  
  
"Hey, you think this is warped?" Dean said bitterly. "Sam and I once encountered a whole family of people who hunted and ate people just because they liked it; seriously, I think their _ten-year-old daughter_ wanted to do me before she killed me."  
  
"Ah," Bela said, suddenly flashing back to the memory of a hunt Sam and Dean had mentioned to her about a couple of children who'd been conceived when their father/grandfather raped his daughter. "But it's still not the same. I mean, my father was… well, let's not bring _him_ up… but the point is that he was an adult who went through god knows what to get to that point, and that family were apparently warped because they were all raised that way; how could three children be so twisted as to do this when they had the same kind of upbringing as everyone else in that home?"  
  
"Sometimes, it's best just not to think about the 'how' of this part of the business," Dean said, his tone grim but sympathetic as he cracked open the last coffin. "I mean, we met Sarah when we had to stop the ghost of a twelve-year-old girl who gutted her family just because; least we can assume this mess was because some specific kid goaded the others or something screwy like that…"  
  
As Bela tossed in the first match, she allowed herself a morbid smile at the thought that had just crossed her mind; as grim as it was to look at these bodies, she was strangely happier doing this than she'd ever been when she was looking for the next big supernatural score.  
  
 _Maybe that makes me just as screwed-up as they are, but there are worse ways to go insane_ …  
  
As the bodies burned, Bela looked up, and for a moment she could swear that she could see Leticia Gore once again, the woman smiling at Bela in a sad yet relieved manner as the bodies of the children who had attacked her son burned away, before she vanished herself.

* * *

"The middle of the room?" Dean looked at Sam in surprise.  
  
"Showed up, embraced what Gran and I assume was her son, and then they both vanished in a bright glow," Sam shrugged. "It's not like it's without precedent, Dean; remember what happened with Molly McNamara?"  
  
"Yeah, but… I mean, she was just in a loop; when was the last time a vengeful spirit did something like that?"  
  
"Keep in mind that she _wasn't_ a vengeful spirit, Dean; she was probably more of a guardian one, considering that she was actually here trying to keep the kids under control," Sam explained. "Anyway, Chuck's managed to sell it as a bit of publicity for the new books he was talking about, and Becky's… otherwise occupied with stuff at the moment, so we're good."  
  
"Do I want to-?"  
  
"Probably not."  
  
"Well," Deanna said, walking up to smile reassuringly at her grandsons, "it looks like we got everything under control out there; even the most fanatical fans seem to buy the 'cover story' so long as Chuck assures them it's the truth."  
  
"Probably worried they're going to come across as nuts if they say they buy it," Dean said dismissively. "I mean, from what he mentioned earlier, even Becky thought he was yanking her chain before he gave her specifics about where we were…"  
  
"Quite likely," Deanna noted, before looking at her grandson with a more pointed stare. "And on that topic, you should cut these people some slack."  
  
"Cut them some slack?" Dean looked at his grandmother in surprise. "Gran, they're getting this caught up in what they think are just a bunch of _books_ …"  
  
"Books like this are never 'just' books, Dean," Deanna said solemnly. "Crime fiction inspired new ways of looking at criminology going all the way back to _Sherlock Holmes_ , and all kinds of other genres have inspired new ideas and perspectives on how the world and society work. From what I've heard, _Star Trek_ opened several doors by casting a black actress in a main role, and then we have so-called 'children's books' that encourage readers to recognise the flaws in societies and question situations rather than blindly accept them just because they were created by those in authority…"  
  
"Your point?"  
  
"My point is that, however you feel about these books, you shouldn't underestimate how other people feel about them," Deanna continued. "I appreciate that you don't like how the books basically air your public issues, and I can sympathise with that being an uncomfortable topic for you, but keep in mind that nobody who reads these _knows_ you're real. They don't read these books to laugh at your misery; they read these books to see a family who, no matter what life throws at them, are willing to go that extra mile for each other no matter what, and are always willing to put their lives on the line for people they've never met before and will never see again, just because it's the right thing to do."  
  
"Damn…" Dean smiled at her, eyes gleaming with the tears her eldest grandson would never let himself completely cry. "How did we cope as a family without you?"  
  
"You muddled along," Deanna shrugged, giving Dean a brief hug before Bela walked over to join them. "Everything fine?"  
  
"In more ways than one," Bela smiled. "Chuck seems to have made a better impression on Becky after she saw him take out one of the ghosts, and I… well, I had some interesting talks with a couple of my fans."  
  
"You had fans?" Sam looked at Bela in surprise.  
  
"The Talbots," Bela shrugged. "Turns out quite a few people think I got the short end of the stick and have been appealing to Chuck to bring me back so I can have another shot."  
  
"That's… good," Dean noted.  
  
"I just wish they wouldn't assume I'd end up with Sasquatch here," Bela added, teasingly jerking a thumb at Sam.  
  
"Hold on; _us_?" Sam stared at Bela in surprise. "I mean, I like… you're pretty much a _sister_ now-"  
  
"And believe me, I'm fine with that," Bela smiled at him. "After all, they're just basing it on one dream you had one time; it's hardly my fault certain people take things out of proportion."  
  
"OK," Dean held out his hands in a T-gesture. "Let's just… _not_ do this any further, OK?"  
  
"Well," Bela said, the smile faltering as she looked more solemnly at the two Winchesters and their Campbell grandmother, "it's not exactly _good_ news, but… Bobby called."  
  
"Oh," Deanna said, looking at her hunting partner with a new sense of apprehension. "What… what's the situation?"  
  
"Carthage, Missouri," Bela explained. "According to Bobby, it's lit up like a Christmas tree with Revelation omens, and it's emptying of people at an exceptional rate; he's still looking up the exact reasons _why_ it's happening, but considering the situation right now…"  
  
"Yeah; worth checking out at least," Dean said, glancing at his watch and raising his eyebrows. "Just got to get that done before…"  
  
"Before what?" Bela asked.  
  
"Nothing," Dean said, reaching into his jacket pocket, the faint sound of paper rustling only just audible to Deanna as she looked at her grandson curiously. "Let's get going."


	56. The Devil Came to Carthage

Even knowing what had to happen in the next couple of days wasn't enough to stop Dean from thinking about their next hunt.

There were no clear guarantees that the omens Bobby had found meant that they were about to confront Lucifer himself, but at the same time, the odds of anything else inspiring these kind of signs weren't exactly high, and that was before he started worrying about what Lucifer actually wanted in Carthage.

 _What is it about that dump_? Dean wondered, recalling that extremely uncomfortable hunt he and Sam had gone on just after Deanna had come to the present; Travis had died, they'd had to kill Jack after they'd unintentionally provoked him into transforming into his rugaru state, and he still wasn't sure what had happened to Michelle.

He'd never tell Sam, but even after over a year since that hunt, he still sometimes wondered if there could have been some way to help Jack, and he was torn between wanting to follow up his suspicions about Michelle and wanting to give the woman a chance by leaving her alone, even if he couldn't admit the why of that to himself…

Still, right now the priority wasn't to ponder a really bad past hunt or worry about what had to happen in the next couple of days; all that mattered was that he did everything he could to make sure that everyone accompanying him on this hunt came through it alive.

Glancing over at where Castiel was currently drinking shots with Ellen, Dean smiled slightly at the image; the angel might still have his awkward moments when it came to interacting with humanity, but after everything Cas had given up for them, it was good to see him fitting in, even if it was in a weird way.

"You're sure about this?" Bela put in, walking over to join Dean.

"We got a snowball's chance, but in a situation like this, a snowball's chance is better than no chance at all," Dean confirmed, sighing slightly as he glanced over to where Sam was talking on the phone. "Wish I could talk him out of this, but…"

"Winchesters," Bela shrugged. "From what Deanna tells me, your father was stubborn about dealing with his perceived responsibilities even before he became a hunter; it must be a genetic thing."

"Still… thanks for getting him in touch with Sarah," Dean noted, indicating his brother's awkward smile as he spoke on the phone. "Gotta admit, I'd be a bit more worried about this mess if Sammy… well, he's got a bit more to hang on for now because of her."

"I do what I can," Bela smiled, leaning over to give Dean a brief kiss before looking at where Jo was now examining the fridge. "Did you ever think that-?"

"No," Dean shook his head, before he looked awkwardly up at the ceiling. "I mean, there was _something_ there, but I was never in the right mood for it after we met, she had a bad couple of experiences with us after she learned what happened to her dad and Sam got possessed by Meg, and then there was… well, crap happened."

"Quite," Bela smiled, squeezing his hand reassuringly.

"Everyone get in here!" Bobby yelled from the main study. "It's time for the lineup! Usual suspects in the corner."

"Oh come on, Bobby," Ellen said as she abandoned the drinking contest and walked into the room, to find the elder hunter setting up a camera tripod at the opposite end of the room. "Nobody wants their picture taken."

"Hear, hear," Sam said, even as he moved into the indicated position.

"Shut up," Bobby said, as he finished with the camera and began to wheel his chair back towards the main group. "You're drinking my beer… and anyway, I'm gonna need something to remember your sorry asses by."

"Always good to have an optimist around," Ellen noted, as she took up position just behind Bobby, Jo to her right and Bela to her left, Dean standing to Bela's left while Sam and Castiel took up position on the right of the group, Deanna crouching down alongside Bobby out of a lack of space.

"Bobby's right," Castiel said in his usual solemn manner. "Tomorrow we hunt the devil; this is our last night on Earth."

"That's hardly the right attitude when we're going into something this big," Bela looked pointedly at Castiel, drawing Uriel's old angel blade after the flash of the camera had faded. "We have the Colt, we have two of these, and we have the element of surprise; that's more than we've had for some of our hunts."

"We are _going_ to do this, Cas," Deanna said, standing up to look firmly at the angel. "You didn't drag me forty years into the future so that I could see the world end, and I'm not going to _let_ it end; is that clear?"

Listening to his grandmother's resolution, Dean briefly allowed himself to hope that they really could pull this off.

He just hoped that his more private goal in the next couple of days would be possible; maybe it was being selfish, but when there had been only one good thing in that post-apocalyptic future he'd seen when Zach zapped him to 2014, he didn't think it was totally self-centred for him to want to make sure that part of the future still happened…

* * *

When they drove into Carthage, the Harvelles, Deanna and Bela, and the Winchesters and Castiel each in a different car, Dean had no idea how he should feel when he realised how silent the place was. He'd come here expecting to find demonic omens, and a town being empty was as good a clue that the devil was present here as anything else he could think of, but the fact that this proved they were in the right place just made the situation more worrying. He and Sam had already confirmed after they entered the town's boundaries that their phones couldn't pick up any signal, which was almost to be expected in an area with large demonic activity, but the further they drove into the town, the more Dean was concerned about what he wasn't seeing.  
  
Finally, after Deanna waved anxiously from her position in the front car, the small group of hunters parked in front of a small collection of houses at the end of the string of shops, exchanging anxious glances as they got out of their cars.  
  
"Place seem a little empty to you?" Ellen noted.  
  
"Sam and I'll check the local PD," Dean said. "You guys stay here, see if you can find anybody."  
  
"Works as well as anything else we could do right now," Bela said, reaching into her jacket to check the angel blade while her other hand raised the gun she'd been given at the start of this hunt, nodding as the Winchesters returned to the Impala and drove away.  
  
"Cas, you'd better stay with us," Deanna glanced over at the angel that had stepped out of the Impala while it paused. "If we find anything, you're our biggest gun right now."  
  
"Of… of course," Castiel said, glancing uncertainly around the empty street.  
  
"What is it, Cas?" Ellen asked.  
  
"This town's not empty," Castiel said, staring around the town with the closest thing to anxiety Bela had seen from him since Uriel had been on his angel-killing spree. "Reapers."  
  
"Reapers?" Bela looked at Castiel in surprise. "As in, plural? Why do I get the feeling that's bad news?"  
  
"They only gather like this at times of great catastrophe," Castiel explained, scanning the area anxiously. "Chicago Fire, San Francisco Quake, Pompeii… Excuse me, I need to find out why they're here."  
  
"Not alone, you're not," Bela said, passing the angel blade to Deanna as she looked firmly at Castiel. "I'm going with you."  
  
"This could be-" Castiel began.  
  
"Dangerous?" Bela smiled. "We met when I was in Hell, Cas; safety hasn't been something I expected even before I made my deal."  
  
"…Very well," Castiel said, before he fixed his gaze on the ex-thief. "But you are to stay right beside me at all times and do what I say if I tell you not to do something; just because you cannot see the Reapers and other potential threats does not mean they are not present."  
  
"Fair enough," Bela nodded, before she looked back at Deanna and the Harvelles. "Keep an eye out; we'll be back once we know anything else."  
  
"Right," Ellen nodded, her expression grim as she adjusted her grip on her weapon. "We'll… do what we can here, I guess."  
  
"And stay safe," Deanna smiled reassuringly at Bela. "Good luck, you two."  
  
With nothing else to be said to that, Bela began to walk briskly after Castiel, only to slow her pace as the angel did the same, staring around the seemingly empty street and closed shops. Finally, Castiel paused in front of a certain house to look up at a particular window for longer than a simple passing glance, followed by him placing a hand on Bela's shoulder and teleporting her to a room that she assumed was inside the building he'd just been looking at.  
  
"Wait here," Castiel said, holding out a firm hand as he looked at Bela, not-entirely-shoving her into a corner near a window. The ex-thief paused for a moment, but decided to follow Castiel's cue, staying in position as the angel walked further into the building…  
  
"Hello, brother," a voice said from down the corridor, followed by the sudden sound of flames starting.  
  
Bela had never heard the voice before, but she instinctively pressed herself closer to the wall, mind immediately flying to the worst possible meaning of that word.  
  
 _If all angels are brothers and sisters_ …  
  
"Lucifer," Castiel said, his tone firm despite the implications of that word.  
  
Bela's blood ran cold as she realised that she was in the same building as the devil, but that chill of horror faded to more simple confusion when she realised that the angel who had created the first demon was showing no sign that he knew she was there, instead asking Castiel if he was here with the Winchesters and dismissing Castiel's claim to have come alone.  
  
Granted, Castiel was the only one of the two of them who could actually hope to hurt Lucifer if either of them tried something, but just ignoring her like this… Bela knew from Sam's dream-encounter with the fallen archangel that the sigils on their ribs just stopped the angels finding them long-range but didn't do anything to stop him reading their minds, particularly not when she was _this close_ …  
  
"Loyalty," Lucifer said, still addressing Castiel as though he genuinely didn't know she was here. "Such a nice quality to see in this day and age. Castiel, right? Castiel… I'm told you came here in an automobile."  
  
"Yes," Castiel replied; Bela wondered if the confusion was just because he didn't understand why Lucifer was talking about cars, or if he was just as curious about the reason Lucifer hadn't mentioned her yet as she was.  
  
"What was that like?"  
  
"Um… slow," Castiel said at last. "Confining."  
  
Bela stifled the urge to laugh at the thought of how Dean would react if he'd heard Castiel describe the Impala like that.  
  
"What a peculiar thing you are," Lucifer observed.  
  
"What's wrong with your vessel?" Castiel asked.  
  
"Yes," Lucifer said, actually sounding uncomfortable at that question. "Nick is wearing a bit thin, I'm afraid. He can't contain me forever, so…"  
  
"You-!" Castiel began, before he fell silent, likely held back by the holy fire around him. "You are not taking Sam Winchester. I won't let you."  
  
"Castiel," Lucifer said wistfully. "I don't understand why you're fighting me, of all the angels."  
  
"You really have to ask?" Castiel said, voicing Bela's own thoughts quite neatly.  
  
"I rebelled, I was cast out; you rebelled, you were cast out," Lucifer said, a summation of the situation that completely ignored every reason why his statement was wrong. "Almost all of heaven wants to see me dead, and if they succeed, guess what? You're their new public enemy number one."  
  
Bela admitted to herself that she wasn't entirely sure if that was the case or not, but for the moment they had to focus on stopping Lucifer and thus the Apocalypse; there was no sense worrying about what would happen to Castiel after Lucifer was defeated when they weren't even sure there would _be_ an 'after'.  
  
"We're on the same side, like it or not," Lucifer continued, with a nonchalance that suggested Castiel was foolish for not recognizing this himself, "so why not just serve your own best interests? Which in this case just happen to be mine?"  
  
"I'll die first," Castiel said firmly.  
  
"I suppose you will," Lucifer said, before the room fell into silence. After a moment, Bela risked a glance around the corner, allowing her to see Castiel standing in the middle of a flaming circle while faced by a figure in a short-sleeved shirt and trousers, his back to Bela.  
  
 _Lucifer_ …  
  
She was barely more than a few metres away from the fallen archangel, and as far as Bela could tell, Lucifer _didn't even know she was there_.  
  
She had no idea what that meant, and she didn't have any weapons on her right now that would do more than annoy something that powerful, but the fact that he didn't even know she was _here_ …  
  
"Bela?" Castiel suddenly said.  
  
"I'm still here," she replied, deciding to stay put for the moment; if Castiel was talking, she doubted that Lucifer was close enough to hear anything, but she didn't want to risk moving in case it was something about her location that was keeping her safe. "Where's… Lucifer?"  
  
"Currently absent, but he will be back shortly," Castiel explained. "As long as Lucifer is focused on the possibility of interrogating me, he will be less inclined to exert true effort in finding the Winchesters and their allies in Carthage, which may give them more time to confirm his plans from the outside while I try and question him about his agenda here."  
  
"You think you can do that?"  
  
"I think I have as good a chance as anyone in this situation, and it is not one that is likely to arise again," Castiel said. "I shall give you a signal when I believe that Lucifer has departed for long enough to make escape a practical option; for the moment, you must remain where you are and stay quiet."  
  
"Understood," Bela said, questions about her apparent invisibility to Lucifer put to the side until they were somewhere safer. "And for the signal… make it 'Baskerville'."  
  
"Baskerville?"  
  
"My safeword," Bela smiled. "I liked imagining that my father would meet the same fate as the villain in that particular novel."  
  
"Which was?"  
  
"Sucked into a deep marsh."  
  
The conversation had been an interesting diversion, but Bela fell silent once that particular talk was over, fully aware of the risk she'd taken talking with Castiel for that long.  
  
If she was somehow 'invisible' to the devil himself, there was no sense risking exposure until they had a better plan for how to use it and she was armed with something more than silver and salt, which for the moment meant going along with Castiel's plan to try and learn what the first fallen angel was doing here…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, anyone care to guess _why_ Lucifer couldn't sense Bela's presence when she was that close to him and Castiel?
> 
> Be assured that I have a reason for it, but at the moment, you'll just have to guess before Castiel's able to share those secrets with the survivors of this hunt…


	57. Demons in Carthage

Walking through Carthage, Dean resisted the urge to go for the Colt that he had hidden in his jacket the moment they'd left Bobby's house. So far Crowley had apparently kept to his word regarding not telling any of the other demons that the Winchesters had reacquired that particular weapon, and they had always killed any demon who saw them with it, but with the devil himself as their target, he couldn't risk something seeing him with it before he was ready to deliver that final shot.

_Surrounded by Reapers, no way to know where Cas and Bela are or what's taking them so long, and no clear idea what the devil's even doing here in the first place…_

"Great," he said in exasperation. "Been in town twenty minutes and we've already lost the angel up our sleeve and one of our best assets."

"What do you mean by 'best', exactly?" Ellen looked at Dean with a stare that was half-critical and half-joking.

"Hey, boys," another voice said before Dean could think of an appropriate response to that query which wouldn't get him in trouble. Spinning around, Dean barely restrained a louder curse when he realised that he was looking at Meg's new meatsuit, evidently controlled by the aforementioned demon; he had no idea what she was doing back in that body when she'd ditched it after Bobby stabbed himself, but there were bigger issues right now.

"Shouldn't have come here," Meg continued mockingly.

"Hell, I could say the same thing for you," Dean countered, as the quintet of hunters aimed their shotguns at the young woman.

"Didn't come here alone," Meg smiled, followed by the sound and sight of something invisible stepping in a puddle to Meg's right, followed by a familiarly ominous growling that set all five hunters anxiously looking around themselves.

"Hellhounds," Dean stated, half-hoping Meg would reveal that she was joking around; would Lucifer really risk Sam getting injured…?

"Yeah, Dean; your favourite," Meg grinned, her nonchalance making it clear that if there was such a plan to protect Sam she wasn't bothered about her own ex-meatsuit's safety right now. "Come on, boys; my father wants to see you."

"I think we'll pass, thanks," Sam affirmed.

"Your call," Meg shrugged. "You can make this easy or you can-"

Deanna cut off Meg's statement by turning towards the puddle where the splash had taken place and firing her salt-loaded shotgun at the puddle. It was a risky manoeuvre, but it appeared to pay off, the hound letting out a startled yelp of pain long enough for Ellen to fire her own gun in the direction of the shot.

"We don't _make_ things easy, bitch!" Dean yelled before the five hunters turned and ran, only for Dean to find himself knocked to the ground by something landing on his back. Amid the sudden sound of snarls from an invisible attacker, Dean suddenly heard a new set of gunshots, looking up to see Jo firing at where the hellhound had to be.

"Jo, stay back!" Dean yelled, even as the young woman's last shotgun blast resulted in a dying whimper coming from the area she'd been firing at. Dean's warning came just a second too late as something struck Jo from behind and sent her to the ground, only to be thrown off when something struck it in the side. For a moment Dean was treated to the incongruous sight of an angel blade seemingly floating in mid-air just beside Jo's fallen body before his grandmother grabbed the blade and helped Jo to her feet, running desperately towards a nearby hardware store as Sam and Ellen laid down covering fire. Grateful beyond belief that the door hadn't been locked, Dean hurried to join Deanna as she laid Jo down on the counter opposite the main door, while Sam and Ellen grabbed a set of chains and wound them around the door handles to stop anyone else getting in.

"Nice throw," Ellen said once the door was secured, looking at Deanna with a relieved smile as she took her daughter from the other woman. "And… thanks."

"You'd do the same," Deanna said, the thought that she'd been unable to do the same for her daughter going unsaid as Dean and Sam hurriedly lined the doors and windows of the store with salt; it wouldn't stop the hellhounds, but it would buy some much-needed time until they could work out their next move.

"How is she?" Sam asked, walking back to join the three women.

"Not great," Ellen said, looking grimly at her daughter's bloodstained back and side. "We got her away before things got too ugly, but with gouges like that, she's not going to be doing anything big for the next few days."

"So we keep her here 'til we can get her out," Dean said, glancing around once again as he passed the angel blade to his grandmother. "We've got a few things we can use here to improv some kind of bandage to stop those getting worse; we set up defences, keep this all contained, two of us can hang tight with Jo while the other two track down Lucifer-"

"Oh, I don't think so," another voice said. Spinning around, the hunters found themselves facing a tall man in a grey suit with demonically-black eyes, standing at the other end of the counter as though he was just a conventional customer rather than the monster three of them recognised.

" _You_ ," Deanna glared, tightening her grip on her borrowed angel blade.

"Me," the demon said. "Although I thought I'd changed-"

"You think my grandsons wouldn't tell me what you were wearing the last time we met?" Deanna indicated his suit with her blade.

"Fair point," the demon shrugged. "On the topic of family, I don't suppose you'd be able to point me to my daughter?"

"Daughter?" Ellen asked.

"Don't know who the meatsuit is, but the last time I ran into this asshat, the black smoking bastard using him to chat with us was Bela's dad back in the day," Dean clarified.

"Her… her dad?" Jo said, looking up at the demon while holding her injured arm. "But he's… thought her parents just died a decade ago…"

"Whatever's down there probably fast-track you through the process when you were raping your own pre-teen daughter _before_ you bought it."

"…Yeah, that'd work," Jo noted grimly, shooting a glare at the meatsuit before her.

"You make it sound so negative-" the demon began.

"You were raping your own daughter, you bastard; what _else_ is it?" Ellen yelled, raising her gun again, her daughter staring at the demon with a new sense of horror despite the pain of her wound.

"Ah ah ah," the man said, raising his hands to point at the two armed hunters with a smile. "Either of you fire those and the hellhounds will _know_ you're here."

"They're dogs," Dean countered. "Demonic dogs, granted, but if they're already tracking our scent-"

"These hounds are a bit less accurate when they're not tracking the subjects of deals, and that's before you take into account that you took down the first hound my associate sent after you," the man smiled as he nonchalantly corrected Dean's assessment. "So, keeping in mind that they're holding back while searching right now-"

He was cut off when Sam suddenly stepped out from an aisle to the side of the man in grey,, yanked the man's shirt down and rammed something against his chest, the demon screaming in pain as his flesh began to smoke from the contact. For a moment Dean waited tensely for his brother to be thrown aside by the demon's retaliation, but the demon simply stood where he was, staring at his chest in shock.

"Devil's trap on an improvised branding iron," Sam said, raising the object in his hand to reveal that it was a hammer with a heated end and a devil's trap carved on the end. "I managed to find a blowtorch here, did a quick bit of carving with Ruby's old knife, and decided it was worth a shot to see if this would work."

"Smart," Dean nodded at his brother before he turned back to the only demon he could confidently say had been just as big a monster when the bastard was human. "So, you prick, now that you're going to be our personal guest until _we_ decide to let you go, care to explain what the demons' daddy is doin' here?"

"You would ask me about _that_?" the demon asked, actually looking relatively confident despite his current trapped condition.

"You've been involved in breaking a few seals and you're related to one of the people fighting him; add in the fact that you're here, and I'd say you've got a few connections," Dean countered. "Care to get talking, or does this have to get unpleasant?"

"Unpleasant how?" the demon countered. "You won't go _that_ far-"

"Normally you'd be right," Dean retorted, eyes narrowing as he stared at his adversary. "But considering what you did to Bela back when you had your own body, I don't think _anyone_ here is going to criticise me if I give you a few lessons in payback."

"No problem here," Sam said.

"Seconded," Deanna added.

"Count me in," Ellen added firmly, Jo raising her hand to offer a thumbs-up that indicated her own support.

After looking around the room to take in their resolute expressions, the demon shrugged and sighed.

"Why not?" he said nonchalantly. "It's not like you can stop it."

"Stop what?" Deanna said, raising the angel blade in a warning manner.

"He's bringing Death back into the picture."

"Hold on; _Death_?" Sam repeated, looking anxiously at their prisoner. "As in the Horseman?"

"I thought they were already out?" Ellen said, even as she stayed close to her daughter.

"Oh, War, Famine and Pestilence are out and about, but Death is something else," Bela's former father replied with undeserved satisfaction for a demon in his position. "The last time anyone brought him out was when Noah had to make a boat, so can you imagine what our lord will do with him on a leash?"

"OK, but why come to Carthage for that?" Dean asked.

"Oh, Death's normally kept on lockdown, but there is a way to change that," the former Mr Talbot said (Dean suddenly wondered what Bela's actual surname had been- when Rufus originally showed him the file he'd barely registered the surname in favour of memorising her first name- but decided that was irrelevant considering Bela's own expressed lack of interest in that part of her life). "Death can be brought into this world, but the ritual must take place at midnight through a place of awful carnage… and back in your Civil War, there was a battle in Carthage that was so intense the soldiers called it the Battle of Hellhole."

"Midnight," Sam said, glancing at his watch with a grim sigh. "That leaves us _some_ time, anyway…"

"You really think you can do anything but accept your fate?" the man chuckled at Sam.

"What can I say?" Dean said, glaring at the man. "We're starting to specialize in it."

He was fully aware that it did no good, but he derived a great deal of satisfaction from seeing Bela's father trapped like that after this guy had found it so easy to get away from them before.

"Right," Ellen said, looking anxiously over at her daughter in a manner that Dean tried not to analyse too closely; if they could just find Cas and Bela, the angel could at least get Jo to safety even if he couldn't heal her himself right now…


	58. Savng the Harvelles

Bela had never been more terrified in her entire life, and that was including the night she'd spent waiting for the hellhounds before her original deal came to a conclusion. She'd spent the last hour or so in varying states of tension as she remained against the wall down the corridor from Castiel, terrified to do anything until the angel gave his cue, constantly wondering if Lucifer would show up in front of her at any moment to reveal that he actually knew she was there and had just kept up this charade to prove some kind of twisted point.

Granted, he seemed too elitist and confident in his power to do something that comparatively petty, but Bela had learned from experience that power didn't make angels that above them all; Uriel had certainly hated humanity when he could have easily just decided to ignore them rather than actively work to unleash Lucifer.

"We've got the Winchesters pinned down," a female voice said from around the corner. "For now, anyway. What should we do with them?"

"Leave them alone."

"Are you sure?" the female voice asked. "I mean, I already sent in-"

"Talbot can handle himself," Lucifer said dismissively, prompting Bela to tense in apprehension.

Even if it wasn't the name he was born with, unless she was the sudden victim of some monumental coincidence, she could see only one demon adopting that name that Lucifer would invite to be present at such a major event…

Her _father_ was involved in this?

God, she hated the fear she felt about that news, but at the same time, a part of her hoped that he ran into Dean's group first; as much as she prided herself on her independence, Dean wouldn't have any of her own trauma to deal with when it came to confronting her father.

"…change your mind?" she heard Lucifer say as she turned her attention back to the conversation taking place close by.

"Never," Castiel said solemnly.

"That can be a long time, Castiel," Lucifer replied nonchalantly. "Well, I'd better be off; Meg here can keep an eye on you while I deal with business."

With those words, the devil turned and vanished, leaving Bela to stare anxiously at her trapped angelic ally while Meg watched him with a sense of satisfaction that no demon should have in the presence of an angel in her opinion.

"Got anything to say, Clarence?" Meg said, glaring mockingly at the angel.

"Baskerville," Castiel replied firmly.

Bela didn't hesitate; stepping out from behind the corner that had been hiding her for what felt like the past few hours, she walked up to the demon known as Meg, grabbed her by the shoulders and shoved her backwards so that she was lying over the flaming holy oil that was keeping Castiel contained. As Meg screamed in agony, Castiel walked grimly over the fallen woman and out of the circle, not even looking down at his former captor before taking Bela by the arm and disappearing from the room.

* * *

Reappearing in the middle of a hardware store, Bela smiled in relief as she saw the Winchesters, the Harvelles, and Deanna standing around it, although her smile faltered when she registered the state that Jo was in.  
  
"What happened?" she said, anxiously moving past Dean to crouch down beside the youngest hunter in the room.  
  
" _Bela_?" Dean looked at her in shock, before he turned to take in the other new arrival. "Cas? You're back?"  
  
"I was briefly contained by Lucifer before Bela was able to help me escape his trap," Castiel explained, looking solemnly at Jo. "She is not well."  
  
"Can you-?" Ellen began.  
  
"No," Castiel shook his head solemnly. "I no longer possess the power to heal since I was cut off from Heaven."  
  
"Aw, isn't that tragic?" another voice said. "The angel who professes to give a crap about these meatsacks can't do anything to help them?"  
  
"Who-?" Bela began, turning around before her eyes widened in horror at the sight of the man standing in the corner, wearing an all-too-familiar suit even if the body wearing it was unfamiliar. " _You_?"  
  
"Me," the demon who was her father's current host said, smiling at her. "Good to see you, Abb-"  
  
Bela cut that short when she slammed her fist into the man's jaw, the impact accompanied by a satisfying crack that Bela recognised as a jaw becoming dislocated.  
  
On one level, Bela regretted causing that much damage to a host who had no say in who was possessing him, but on the other, she was far more satisfied at having the chance to do some actual damage to the man who'd spent so many years tormenting her before she'd made her deal.  
  
" _Shut_. _Up_ ," she said firmly. "You have _nothing_ to say to me that I would _want_ to hear."  
  
"A'hee…" the host said, his jaw too displaced to let him talk clearly.  
  
"Right," Bela said, already resolving to ignore that man for the foreseeable future as she turned around to look at the rest. "Just to be sure we're all clear, what's the situation here?"  
  
"We're pinned down by hellhounds, I can barely move my legs without feeling like I'm being gutted all over again, and we've worked out that Lucifer's here to wake up the Horseman of Death; how do you _think_ this shit's going down?" Jo said bitterly.  
  
"OK," Bela said, looking urgently around the store before she made a decision. "Castiel, you need to get the Harvelles to a hospital; we can set up some kind of bomb for the hellhounds with everything we have here, and then we wait for you."  
  
"And then what?" Deanna asked.  
  
"And _then_ we go after Lucifer while Cas stays behind to set off the bomb?" Dean smiled, as he glanced over at the angel. "I mean, you can set off a bomb and then bail out the second after you trigger it, right?"  
  
"Indeed," Castiel confirmed.  
  
"Then get going," Sam said, indicating Jo and Ellen even as he faced the angel. "If you get them to New York, call Sarah Blake; she can help cover Jo's medical expenses."  
  
"Sarah?" Ellen said, her mood noticeably lighter now that her daughter had a chance. "Is that the girl I've been hearing about, Sam?"  
  
"She's… yeah," Sam nodded with a surprisingly shy smile.  
  
"Sounds like a plan," Ellen said, standing up for a moment to look resolutely at the others. "Let's get a bomb or two together, send Rover back to the doghouse, and then get on with making sure the damn devil goes all the way back to Hell."  
  
It was a skill that Bela had been peripherally aware of before her time in Hell, but she had never seriously thought about how the Winchesters pulled off some of their hunting feats considering their relatively limited legitimate finances. Even with the occasional distraction of her trapped father trying to make insulting comments, coupled with the obvious handicap of Jo's injuries limiting what she could do, it didn't take long for them to assemble a few makeshift 'bombs', filling various buckets with nails and rock salt around central gas tanks and connecting them to a trigger switch, all set up in front of the counter.  
  
"OK," Deanna said, assessing the situation with a resolute expression. "All things considered, it's a simple lash-up, but I think we've made something workable here."  
  
"You really think you can stop anything with that?" Bela's father said, glaring mockingly at the assembled hunters. "Lucifer has already risen, and it won't be long until all four Horsemen are out to do his work-"  
  
" _Enough_ ," Castiel said firmly, walking up to the trapped demon and slamming his hand against the man's forehead. For a moment Bela smiled in relief at the sight, but the smile faded when her father's current host displayed none of the familiar signs of a demon being exorcised from its host.  
  
 _Oh crap_ , Bela thought, as she realised that Castiel had just given away a weakness he wasn't even aware of to a particularly dangerous demon.  
  
"You can't do it, can you?" the man said, grinning mockingly at the angel. "You're so out of juice you can't even kill me?"  
  
"But we can," Dean said, quickly putting that particular revelation to the side as he drew Ruby's old knife while Deanna pulled out the angel-killing blade. As the two of them advanced towards the trapped man, the meatsuit suddenly reached up with one hand and scratched at his chest, tearing through the sigil Sam had burned onto his chest, before he tilted his head back and black smoke burst from his mouth, leaving the two blade-wielders to lunge forward to try and stab the smoke before it vanished through the ceiling, leaving the body to fall to the ground.  
  
" _Shit_ ," Dean said, dashing over to check the man's pulse, shaking his head in frustration as he looked up at his brother and the women. "Guy's alive, but he's out of it; guess everything we did to the demon wasn't enough to actually kill him without the demon to keep him going."  
  
"I'll take him to hospital as well," Castiel said, moving over to pick the man up and carrying him with one arm, before crouching down to place a hand on Jo's shoulder. "Once these two have been dropped off in a hospital, I'll come back here to set this bomb off."  
  
"You're taking me too," Ellen said, walking over to place a firm hand on Castiel's shoulder. "These four can take the devil; I'm sticking with my daughter."  
  
"Good call," Dean nodded at the older woman, before his manner became more solemn. "Look… I'm sorry 'bout-"  
  
"We both came along knowing the odds, Dean," Ellen looked firmly at him. "Jo getting hurt sucks, but it's not like you sicced the hounds on her yourself."  
  
"Can we just… do this?" Jo asked, wincing as she held her bleeding chest. "This is _really_ starting to hurt…"  
  
Bela bit back the urge to point out that it had likely been hurting for a while; how the younger woman chose to cope with pain wasn't anyone's concern but her own.  
  
"Right," Castiel nodded at the young woman before looking up at the four staying behind. "Make sure everything's ready here; once I get back, you should be ready to run."  
  
"Get those dogs going after the trap ASAP, huh?" Dean asked.  
  
"Exactly," Castiel nodded. With those words, he closed his eyes and vanished with Ellen, Jo and the former meatsuit, leaving the Winchesters, Bela and Deanna to take one last check-over the hastily-assembled bomb in front of them.  
  
"You sure about this?" Dean looked at his grandmother at last.  
  
"Keeping in mind that I didn't face many hellhounds back in my day as seem to be running around these days, I think this could work," Deanna confirmed, smiling thoughtfully at her namesake. "Technically speaking, there's no sign that anything here won't work; the only thing we need to make it all work right now is someone to push the trigger…"  
  
"Which is where I come in," Castiel said, as the angel returned to the room.  
  
"Jo?" Dean asked.  
  
"She and the host are being treated," Castiel confirmed, glancing at the explosives. "Will this work?"  
  
"As sure as we can ever be about anything; just set it off once you see their drooling fangs, and I think it should work out," Bela nodded. "As for us… well, I guess we go after the devil?"  
  
"Good luck," Castiel nodded.  
  
"Remember," Deanna looked at the angel as the other three made for the back of the store, "let them in, get them all together, set the bomb off, and then get out of here to join us; whatever's about to happen, we're going to need a quick exit."  
  
As Castiel nodded in understanding, the displaced woman ran for the store's rear exist, trying once again not to think too much about what she was about to do.  
  
Running _towards_ the Devil had to be the craziest thing she'd done in her life since she'd decided to stay in the future…


	59. Shooting Lucifer

Whenever she looked back on that desperate race from the hardware store to the field that had been identified as the site where Lucifer would perform his sick ritual, Bela could never recall more than a few key details with total clarity. A few of the abandoned streets stuck in her mind because the cars showed a more disorganised pattern than the usual simple parking arrangement, but eventually they reached the edge of the city, looking out at a field with several men standing around, their eyes visibly black even at this distance at night.

"Guess we know what happened to some of the townspeople," Dean noted from their position crouched behind the trees, the assembled meatsuits simply standing and watching as Lucifer dug into the ground.

"Right," Sam nodded at his brother before he looked at his grandmother and the woman who might as well be his sister-in-law, a part of him wishing that Sarah was here before he reminded himself that she should be as far away from Lucifer as possible. "So… any last words?"

"I'm good," Dean said.

"Me too," Bela said grimly.

"I can work with this," Deanna affirmed with a solemn nod, even as she looked curiously at Dean. "Still, you do know that Castiel will be coming here, right?"

"You know me; like to be sure we're ready for the worst-case if he's late," Dean said, one hand reaching inside his jacket to check the Colt before he looked at Sam. "Ready?"

"Ready," Sam nodded, cocking his shotgun before he looked over at Deanna and Bela. "Get ready to move."

As the Winchesters moved into action, Bela could only nod grimly as she felt for the angel blade in her jacket; it probably wouldn't do much to Lucifer, considering some of Castiel's comments about how archangels were more powerful than normal angels, but it had to do _something_ to the archangel if she got the chance to stick him with it.

Everything they were about to do here was a gamble, but if Sam could keep Lucifer's attention on him for just the next few seconds, Dean might just have a chance…

* * *

As Sam walked up to the man he'd only seen briefly in a dream months ago, a part of Sam wondered what this man had been through that had convinced him saying 'yes' to the devil was a good idea. It wasn't likely that he'd ever find out where this guy had come from before Lucifer took him, of course- they'd only learned about Jimmy Novak through a bizarrely complicated chain of events, and he doubted that most angels would bother to share the details of their vessels' former lives- but the thing he really regretted about this was that they had to kill a relatively innocent man to stop the Devil.  
  
He could get it on a pragmatic level, and he could probably tell himself that this man had at least _chosen_ to be a host to Lucifer where the demon who'd possessed that nurse had just chosen her completely against her will, but he knew he was going to regret a part of this later on even if everything else worked…  
  
"You wanted to see me?" he said, readying the shotgun as he walked through the still-standing demons, some of whom turned to look at him as he walked up to the devil.  
  
"Oh, Sam, you don't need that gun here," Lucifer said, putting down the shovel and smiling nonchalantly at him. "You know I'd never hurt you. Not really."  
  
"Yeah?" Dean said, aiming the Colt at Lucifer's head as he took up position behind the devil. "Well, I'd hurt you; so suck it."  
  
With that grim statement, Dean pulled the trigger, smiling in satisfaction as the bullet struck Lucifer in the head, leaving the devil to collapse to the ground. For a moment, the Winchesters stared at his fallen form, the familiar pentagram shape of the Colt's bullets visible on his forehead, but just as Sam was starting to smile, Lucifer inhaled and moved.  
  
"Ooowww…" Lucifer said, looking at Dean in a stern manner as he got to his feet. "Where did you get that?"  
  
Lucifer didn't even given Dean a chance to respond before he punched the elder Winchester, sending Dean flying into a tree before he turned back to face Sam.  
  
"Now then," Lucifer said, as the pentagram on his head vanished, "where were we?"  
  
Sam couldn't think of a thing to say after seeing their best plan to stop the devil fail so completely, so he just stood and stared in silent shock at the other man.  
  
"Don't feel too bad, Sam," Lucifer said, actually having the nerve to sound like he _pitied_ Sam's failure. "There's only five things in all of creation that that gun can't kill, and I just happen to be one of them. But if you give me a minute, I'm almost done."  
  
With that said, Lucifer picked up the shovel and began to dig again, leaving Sam to hurry over to Dean and check his pulse. He was briefly relieved when he determined that his brother was still alive,  
  
"You know," Lucifer said, leaning on the shovel to look thoughtfully at Sam, "I don't suppose you'd just say yes here and now? End this whole tiresome discussion? That's crazy, right?"  
  
"It's never gonna happen!" Sam said firmly, disgusted that the devil could actually believe that.  
  
"Oh, I don't know, Sam," Lucifer said, turning back to filling the hole. "I think it will. I think it'll happen soon. Within six months. And I think it'll happen in Detroit."  
  
"You listen to me, you son of a bitch," Sam said; if he was the only person Lucifer couldn't kill, he was going to use that 'ability' to its fullest extent. "I'm gonna kill you myself, you understand me? I'm going to rip your heart out!"  
  
"That's good, Sam," Lucifer said, daring to keep digging as he spoke. "You keep fanning that fire in your belly. All that pent-up rage. I'm gonna need it."  
  
"What did you do?" Sam said, looking around at the gathered men who still did nothing but watch Lucifer dig. "What did you do to this town?"  
  
"Oh, I was very generous with this town," Lucifer replied. "One demon for every able-bodied man."  
  
"And the rest of them?"  
  
"In there," Lucifer said at last, indicating the pit in front of him with a sick grin. "I know, it's awful, but these horsemen are so demanding. So it was women and children first."  
  
Lucifer paused, staring at Sam with a solemn expression that made the younger Winchester even angrier at him. "I know what you must think of me, Sam. But I have to do this. I have to. You of all people should understand."  
  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sam looked sharply at the devil.  
  
"I was a son," Lucifer explained, his expression becoming more solemn as he tossed the shovel to the side. "A brother, like you, a younger brother, and I had an older brother who I loved. Idolized, in fact. And one day I went to him and I begged him to stand with me, and Michael… Michael turned on me. Called me a freak. A monster. And then he beat me down. All because I was different. Because I had a mind of my own. Tell me something, Sam. Any of this sound familiar?"

* * *

From her hiding-place among the trees a short distance from the Winchesters, Bela couldn't believe Lucifer thought that he and Sam could have anything in common. Sam and Dean might have argued, but even if Dean had worried about Sam being seen as a freak, apart from the exceptional circumstances of Ruby's manipulations, he'd never have treated Sam like _that_ , and everything she'd heard about the time Sam left Dean and John to go to Stanford had portrayed John as the one who was angry about it while Dean had just accepted his brother's decision.  
  
"Anyway," Lucifer said, the Devil apparently still completely ignorant of her watching him, "you'll have to excuse me. Midnight is calling and I have a ritual to finish. Don't go anywhere. Not that you could if you would."  
  
As Sam focused on checking Dean, Bela made a couple of quick silent hand-gestures to indicate that Deanna could sneak around the back to join her grandsons while she tried to retrieve the Colt from where Dean had dropped it; since Lucifer apparently couldn't detect her, it made sense to Bela that she should take the more exposed route.  
  
"Now repeat after me," Lucifer said, clearly addressing the assembled demons in the field around them. "We offer up our lives, blood, souls-"  
  
" _We offer up our lives, blood, souls_ ," the demons repeated.  
  
"To complete this tribute," Lucifer continued.  
  
" _To complete this tribute_."  
  
With those final words, the demons' skulls all flashed gold and then they fell over, the hosts slumped over in a manner that made it clear they were all dead.  
  
"What?" Lucifer shrugged dismissively, looking back at where Sam and Dean were staring at him in shock at what had just taken place. "They're just demons."  
  
It was a small detail, but at least that act proved that Crowley had been telling the truth that Lucifer would kill the demons once he'd achieved his victory in the Apocalypse; Bela doubted she'd convince any demons they encountered of the truth, but at least this gave them evidence that Crowley could be 'trusted'.  
  
As Lucifer stared into the pit before him, the ground rumbling as something seemed to stir underneath, Bela seized the opportunity to grab the Colt before crawling desperately towards the Winchesters, Deanna now hiding behind the tree that Dean had struck. Almost as soon as Bela joined the trio, Castiel appeared alongside them, his coat smoking slightly but otherwise unharmed, before he placed his hands on their shoulders…

* * *

"So… how are you?" Bela asked, looking awkwardly at Jo Harvelle as the younger woman lay in a hospital bed, her mother sitting anxiously by her side while the Winchesters, Deanna and Castiel stood around the room; Bobby had declined the offer to accompany them to the hospital, noting that he preferred to stay put unless he found something that could fix his legs, but he'd made it clear that he was relieved they were all alive.  
  
"Still a bit sore," Jo said, letting out a weak laugh as she touched her stomach, heavily bandaged by the doctors pretty much as soon as she'd arrived. "Still, advantage of being fairly low-key hunter-wise; bar might've burned down a while ago, but medical insurance is still good enough for stuff like this."  
  
"Even if it's only thanks to Cas that we made it here in time for that to make a difference," Ellen noted, looking at the angel in obvious relief. "Took out those hounds, huh?"  
  
"It was… not a pleasant experience… but I was able to escape after triggering the explosion once sufficient hounds were assembled around me," Castiel confirmed. "We are fortunate that hounds are very single-minded when following a trail; if they had not already caught the scent of Jo's blood, they would likely have instinctually ignored me once they became aware of my presence."  
  
"Still tough enough to freak out the mad dogs, huh?" Dean smiled. "Good to know."  
  
"On the topic of freaking out," Bela said, looking over at Castiel, "would you care to explain how Lucifer _completely_ missed me earlier?"  
  
"What?" the other five looked sharply at Bela.  
  
"Castiel was trapped in a right of holy fire by Lucifer, but Lucifer didn't seem to know I was there even when I was standing only a few feet away from the two of them," Bela said. "Considering what angels have done in the past, I thought that was… well, strange."  
  
"Tell me about it," Dean nodded, his attention shifting between his lover and the angel that had dragged them both from Hell. "I mean, you guys were able to find the room we were staying in during that mess with the Seal last Halloween, so why would Lucy miss Bela if she was basically in the same room as him?"  
  
"That would be due to Bela Talbot's status as an unbroken Seal," Castiel said.  
  
"What?" Bela looked at Castiel in surprise.  
  
"An unbroken seal?" Ellen looked at Bela with new curiosity. "As in those things that they had to break to let this guy out of his cage?"  
  
"Precisely," Castiel nodded.  
  
" _You_ were a Seal?"  
  
"I was meant to be… well, my title would have been 'the Seal of the Corrupted Innocent'," the ex-thief explained grimly.  
  
"Corrupted Innocent?" Jo looked at Bela in surprise. "Uh… OK, sorry if this hurts your feelings, but weren't you a thief before your deal came through?"  
  
"After making the deal to kill my father because he'd been raping me for the last few years since I became a teenager," Bela said bluntly.  
  
"Oh," Jo said, looking far more shamefully at the other woman. "Sorry; I didn't think-"  
  
"Easy to forget that whole incident, considering that I don't like to talk about it," Bela nodded at her before looking back at Ellen. "Anyway, from what Castiel told me, demons basically gave me the chance to make the deal so that I could serve as the Seal of the Corrupted Innocent; I only went to Hell because I made a deal to escape being tortured, and would have become an even greater monster than my tormentor once my corruption was complete."  
  
"Wonder if that scale was set to change you based on before or after the bastard became a demon himself…" Dean noted, before he shook his head and turned back to Castiel. "Anyway, why does that have anything to do with Lucifer not being able to sense her?"  
  
"As the Seal of the Corrupted Innocent was never broken, Bela is essentially immune to direct application of Lucifer's powers," Castiel explained. "It is similar to how Lucifer was unable to break the Seals himself; as he could not break the Seals on his own, once he was released, I theorised that he would not be able to affect an unbroken Seal."  
  
"Really?" Bela looked at the angel in surprise. "You… when did you realise that?"  
  
"I had theorised it might be the case since Lucifer was released, but for obvious reasons, it was not a theory I was inclined to test in case I was wrong."  
  
"Can't argue with that," Dean noted.  
  
"So, when you said she was probably immune to _direct_ application of Lucifer's powers… what are we talking about here?" Sam asked, looking curiously at the angel.  
  
"Assuming that this day's activities are evidence, I believe that Bela is essentially invisible to Lucifer if he is not looking directly at her with the eyes of his vessel," Castiel explained. "As a result, he cannot read her mind or sense her presence if he is not already aware of her."  
  
"Meaning that he _could_ read my mind if he was actively trying?" Bela asked.  
  
"It would be to a limited degree, and I doubt that he could access your thoughts without you being aware of it," Castiel explained. "I can visit your mind just as I can visit Dean's due to the bond I established when releasing you from Hell, and Lucifer can access Sam's mind due to Sam's status as his vessel, but neither of us can control others even in such a situation, and Lucifer would not even have that amount of access to Bela's mind."  
  
"OK, hate to be a downer, but won't he realise what she is now?" Ellen asked. "I mean, he probably saw her grab the Colt, and if he did he might've realised that he can't do anythin' to stop her-"  
  
"He may assume that she was using an Enochian charm or a similar artefact," Castiel put in.  
  
"Enochian charm?" Jo asked, sitting slightly up in her bed despite the wince as she clutched her chest. "That's a thing?"  
  
"And if there's something that could stop him hurting the rest of us-?"  
  
"Such charms are extremely rare, very complex to make, and are obviously hidden from all angels on a constant basis," Castiel explained. "With my currently weakened power I can do no more for you than what I have done so far, I would have to search the entire planet in my vessel in order to find a pre-made one, and with no idea where they might be or even what they would be, it would be more futile than… I believe the expression is 'looking for a needle in a haystack'?"  
  
"Talking of needles in haystacks," Dean said with a thoughtful smile, "if unbroken Seals can't be hurt by Lucifer, what could Tessa do to him?"  
  
"Tessa?" Deanna looked at her grandson in surprise. "That Reaper you met?"  
  
"Hey, she would have been sacrificed with that other Reaper before we stepped in-"  
  
"Even if we could convince Tessa to help us, she was not explicitly chosen to break the Seal," Castiel explained. "Bela is immune as she was explicitly selected to break the Seal of the Corrupted Innocent, but Tessa was chosen as a sacrifice simply because she was the Reaper in the right place at the right time."  
  
"Well, that makes sense," Ellen nodded. "Sucks, but makes sense."  
  
"Right," Bela nodded. "So, in a nutshell, Lucifer could still kill me if he threw something at me, and he might be able to read my mind if he put some effort into it, but he can't just _will_ me dead or break into my mind without me knowing about it?"  
  
"And he would be unlikely to attempt to enter your mind unless he was certain there was a reason to do so," Castiel noted.  
  
"OK," Bela nodded in acknowledgement of his comment. "It's… well, it's not much, but it might be something we can use later."  
  
"How?" Sam asked.  
  
"You do realise I can't actually _tell_ you that, right?" Bela noted, looking at Sam with an awkward smile. "I mean, if you know what I'm thinking of doing, that creates the risk that Lucifer would know about it…"  
  
"Good point," Dean nodded at her. "OK, new rule; we all make plans to take Lucifer's sorry ass down, but if you think of something _really_ good, keep it to yourself and tell us only what we need to know if we have to know anything."  
  
"Check," Bela smiled at Dean, relieved as the rest of the group nodded at her in agreement of Dean's plan.  
  
There might be news reports of a massive storm sweeping out from Carthage across the rest of the country, but even if killing Lucifer with the Colt had been ruled out, they had learned that they still had a weapon if they could figure out how to use it.  
  
Bela didn't have a plan right now, but as soon as a good idea came to her, she was going to send Lucifer straight to wherever angels went when they died…  
  
Right now, however, with Dean looking at her in that almost tender way that Bela had learned to recognise meant that he was interested in more intimate activities, she had more immediate activities in mind for the two of them that would hopefully give them a more pleasant memory to dwell on when looking back on this day in future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, what do you think of Bela's latest addition to the conflict with Lucifer (beyond 'helping' Dean to set the stage for the one part of his glimpsed future that he actually _wants_ to happen, even if she doesn't know that part yet)?


	60. Dinner with Sarah

Sitting patiently in a bar, Sarah wondered what it said about her life that she wasn't entirely surprised at Sam being late for their latest date. Even as a part of her wished that she and her boyfriend could have a more conventional life, she simultaneously recognised that this was the price she paid for dating a Winchester, and that Sam would never be late for their dates if he didn't have a good reason for it.

She understood that he had a great deal on his plate after everything she had learned during the talks with Bela and him since they'd got back in touch, but he was making a genuine effort to keep up this relationship now that they'd started seeing each other again. She was even enjoying the new tentative friendship she'd been forming with Bela since the last meeting, occasionally talking with the woman over the phone to discuss recent events, ranging from some of Bela's hunts or her own recent experiences at the auction house.

 _Considering that we're likely to be in-laws, at least we're getting along_ …

"Hey," a familiar voice said.

"Sam?" Sarah looked up, smiling in relief as she saw him standing by the table, wearing a casually smart suit that looked like it was something he actually wore for this date rather than something he wore when he was posing as a government agent of some sort. "How are you?"

"It's been… interesting," Sam said, shrugging slightly as he sat down. "I mean, would you believe that I spent the last few days in the body of a seventeen-year-old?"

"What?" Sarah looked at him in surprise. "How did that happen?"

"Some wannabe teenage witch wanted to make a good impression on the demons by giving them me and Dean so he did some kind of spell to take over my body," Sam shrugged. "He tried to stop me telling Dean anything by ditching our phones until he could set up the trap, but he kept on making mistakes; getting Dean's food for both of us, trying to score with some woman he met at a bar, that kind of thing."

"Yeah, you two aren't that alike," Sarah mused with a smile, ignoring the brief moment of jealousy she felt at the reference to Sam trying to score in a bar; it was just his body, so that didn't count as something for her to be angry about. "So what happened?"

"Well, one of Gary's friends made a deal to draw a demon in and possess one of his other friends to tell it that they'd found us, but then the demon killed that guy and tried to make a deal with Gary before Dean talked him out of it," Sam explained. "Gary helped Dean exorcise the demon from his remaining friend, they took Dean back to where they'd been keeping me prisoner, and then they reversed the spell to put us back in our bodies."

"And you're sure he didn't… do anything?" Sarah asked, her tone partly jocular and part genuine concern.

"I'm sure," Sam nodded. "Like I said, Dean suspected something was up when he saw 'me' going upstairs with a blonde, so he came up with a fake hunt and then called 'me' to lure him somewhere he could capture the guy before the kid did anything… well, anything that my body would regret."

"Good for Dean," Sarah nodded, grinning at the young man. "And talking of your brother, how's he doing recently?"

"Actually… pretty well," Sam noted, looking thoughtfully at her. "I mean, we had a close call a couple of months ago when our attempt to take out Lucifer didn't work out, but everyone got out of it, and since then… well, he's been very protective."

"That seems fairly standard Dean to-"

"Not of me," Sam interrupted. "Of Bela."

"Bela?" Sarah raised her eyebrows. "As in Bela Talbot? The woman who works with your grandmother? The expert on supernatural artefacts? He's acting _protective_ of _that_ Bela?"

"Yeah," Sam said. "I mean, he's not trying to keep her locked up somewhere safe or anything extreme, but there's still… he's being more cautious around her then… I mean, I've never seen him like this about _anyone_ before."

"Which is… a good thing?"

"I mean, I'm glad he's found someone he wants to have that with, but…" Sam sighed. "I don't know; maybe I'm over-thinking it, but it's like he's _expecting_ something…"

"Hey," Sarah reached over to place a reassuring hand on Sam's arm. "This is Dean we're talking about; you told me yourself that he's always been protective of the people he cares about, and Bela's becoming that for so many reasons right now. If he needs your help with something, I'm sure he'll tell you; right now, if he hasn't asked for your help, it's probably just him being over-cautious about his first serious relationship."

"Probably," Sam said, chuckling briefly. "I wonder if he's realised."

"That he's being over-cautious?"

"That he's in a relationship," Sam clarified. "I mean, we were talking for a bit about how… an old friend… had made a good life for themselves since we last saw them, and when Dean asked… well, there was a time he'd have said 'no' to that idea straight away, but I'm still not sure he realised the implications of what he was saying."

"We all change, huh?" Sarah smiled, her reassuring hand slipping from Sam's arm to take his hand in hers, the two smiling slightly at each other. "I mean, we've got… I mean, I'm not expecting you to commit to anything, but…"

"But I want to," Sam said, placing his other hand on top of hers, the two looking at each other for a moment before he smiled. "And actually, on the topic of wanting stuff, the whole body-switch thing did give me a chance to learn something else from Cas that might help."

"Like his theory that Bela's basically invisible to Lucifer?"

"Where did-?"

"She told me a while ago," Sarah smiled. "I mean, you all knew about it, and we're agreed that I can't ask her anything that might give away any plans she has to use it against him, but she likes having another perspective… just in case I say something useful, you know."

"Makes sense," Sam smiled, before looking more serious. "Anyway, according to Cas, Michael and Lucifer need completely free consent to get me or Dean to act as their vessels."

"Completely free consent?" Sarah repeated, looking curiously at him as she thought back over what she'd been told about angels. "Why's that important? I mean, you told me that angels need consent to take vessels…"

"But apparently that consent needs the vessels to be completely in control of themselves when they make that choice," Sam said. "The demons thought that they could get Lucifer to take me as a vessel by having Gary give consent while he was in my body, but according to Castiel that wouldn't work as my body and soul would be… out of alignment somehow."

"And that's a big deal?"

"It also stops them from just changing our minds and personalities so that we'd be more willing to do what they want."

"That was an option?" Sarah looked at him in shock.

"Theoretically, anyway," Sam confirmed. "Anyway, according to Cas, even if some of the angels tried to change us so that we'd say yes, the moment we were actually vessels, they'd start to heal our bodies from the 'damage' of that change, and we'd be able to expel the angels because it wasn't actually _us_ who made that choice."

"That… makes sense, I guess," Sarah nodded, looking at him thoughtfully. "Reminds of something one of my exes read in a comic…"

"Really?" Sam looked at her in surprise.

"One of the reasons he's an ex; he talked too much about whatever he was reading or watching on TV without thinking about whether I knew _anything_ about what he was talking about," Sarah shrugged, smiling slightly teasingly at Sam before her expression became more serious. "Anyway, one storyline he mentioned was something about how these superheroes weren't affected by some kind of genetically-programmed brainwashing because their bodies had to be completely aligned in a certain manner to use their powers, so every time they used their powers their bodies fought against the brainwashing until they returned to normal."

"That… actually makes sense," Sam smiled thoughtfully at her. "From what Jimmy told us when he was temporarily separated from Cas, there's an almost spiritual bond to the vessel when the angel links with them; if an angel tampered with the mind of the vessel to get their consent, it might cause some kind of disruption that would make it easier for the vessel to throw them off…"

He shook his head and sighed as he looked at Sarah. "Sorry; I meant to make this night about us, and I ended up talking about how angels work…"

"Hey, it's OK," Sarah smiled reassuringly at him. "This is your life, Sam; I appreciate that you want to get away from that, but you can't completely turn it off… and, to be honest, I wouldn't want you to get rid of that part of yourself anyway."

"Thanks," Sam smiled at her, before he glanced at the menu before him. "Anyway, we've covered why I was late; shall we just order our food and go over what's been up with your life since we last met?"

"I can do that," Sarah smiled. "Actually, the auction house is doing pretty well; I've been keeping in contact with your grandmother if I come across anything that might be supernatural in nature…"

As the two of them studied the menu and talked about the last month or so of their lives, Sarah smiled at the content expression on Sam's face as their conversation continued.

She appreciated that she and Sam could never have a completely normal life, but right now, she felt a certain sentimental satisfaction that she was able to give him something he'd been missing ever since he lost Jess.

_And I'm not going to think about how we may not have the time to have anything more than this…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To confirm, since Zachariah never put Dean and Sam through the events of 'It's a Terrible Life' in this series, Sam doesn't have those events to use as a reference, but this theory is basically my way of explaining why Zachariah didn't just repeat his feat in that episode to change Sam and Dean's minds to turn them into people who _would_ be willing to say 'Yes' to Michael and Lucifer.


	61. Mother and Child Reunion

Bela was ashamed to admit that she hadn't thought much about Anna since Castiel's temporary expulsion from Jimmy's body before Dean and Castiel reported her return, but the news that the angel had to bring was far from the positive development she'd been hoping for once Dean reported that their second major angel ally was back in the game.

"She wants to kill Sam," Deanna looked at Castiel with a cool stare that put Bela in mind of a tiger waiting to pounce. "And you let her _go_?"

"She was the commander of my garrison before I fell from Heaven and was prepared for me to attack; given my current state, I am fortunate that she chose not to press the issue," Castiel pointed out as he continued to draw a symbol in chalk on the table.

"Good point," Bela nodded. Castiel might be handling himself, but he had made it clear more than once that he was low on power compared to what he'd been capable of when they'd met, and Anna had definitely made an impression when she had her powers.

"He _let her go_ -" Deanna glared at her partner as the five of them stood in their latest hotel room.

"Because he had no guarantee he could beat Anna even before he was cut off from Heaven and it was more important that we knew what she was going to do than risk finding out that he couldn't stop her the hard way," Bela cut the older woman off; the idea of Anna disintegrating Sam was unnerving, but complaining about the situation they were facing wouldn't help them stop their latest angelic enemy. "Now what are we going to do about her?"

" _Before_ she goes all Glenn Close on us," Dean pointed out.

"Are we talking boiling rabbits or skinning puppies?"

"What?" Deanna looked at the younger woman in confusion.

"OK, before we start debating movies, I think we're _all_ missing the point here," Sam cut in as he looked at the angel. "This plan to kill me… would it actually stop Lucifer?"

"No," Dean affirmed. "Sam, come on-"

"Cas, what do you think?" the youngest Winchester looked at Castiel, ignoring his brother's protests. "Does Anna have a point?"

"No," Castiel said, even after a glance between him and Dean affirmed that he wasn't entirely sure about the answer to that question. "She's, uh, Glenn Close."

"OK," Deanna looked at the angel once satisfied that Sam wasn't going to keep pursuing that line of enquiry. "So if Anna wants to kill Sam, why are we looking for her?"

"Anna will keep trying," Castiel explained grimly. "She won't give up until Sam is dead… so we kill her first."

With that solemn statement, Castiel poured oil into a bowl set up on a nearby table, and began to chant something that the watching hunters vaguely recognised as Enochian. After a few moments, the bowl shot red flame into the air, leaving Castiel to step back from the table and lean against the nearest chair, eyes closed and breathing heavily.

"Castiel?" Bela looked anxiously at him. "What's wrong? Did you find her?"

"Yes," Castiel affirmed.

"So?" Bela asked, wondering what had shaken the angel so much. "Where is she?"

"Not where," Castiel said, straightening up from his initial response. "When… 1978."

"What?" Deanna looked at the angel, eyes widening in horror as she looked over at her grandsons. "But then… _Mary_?"

"Exactly," Castiel nodded grimly. "She intends to eliminate Sam as a vessel by killing John and Mary Winchester before his birth."

" _What_?" Deanna and her grandchildren yelled simultaneously, Bela only able to stare at the angel in shocked silence at that news. A morbid part of her suddenly wondered if Anna had seen the _Terminator_ films or something similar while she was human, but the origin of this plan didn't matter as much as working out how they could stop it.

"Anna can't find you because of me, so she's going after them-" Castiel continued.

"Take us there," Deanna cut him off, walking up to stare the angel down. " _Now_."

"It would deliver you into Anna's hands-"

"I understood why you couldn't take me back home after I came here, but I am _not_ going to just stay in this time and let my daughter get killed by a psychotic angel who wants to erase my grandson from existence!" Deanna glared at Castiel. "Take us back to 1978 _now_."

"It is… not that simple," Castiel said, looking uncomfortably at his assembled allies.

"Why not?" Sam asked. "You've done it before-"

"When I had all the powers of Heaven at my disposal," Castiel corrected.

"So… what?" Dean asked. "Without your link to Upstairs, you're basically a DeLorean without plutonium?"

"I don't understand that reference," Castiel looked at Dean in exasperation. "But I'm telling you, taking this trip, with passengers no less… it will weaken me."

"And we get that," Dean said, walking over to stand in front of Castiel. "But this is our mom and dad; if we _can_ save them… and not just from Anna, but from all the other bad crap…"

"Very well," Castiel nodded at last, looking around the room. "I presume we are all going?"

"Of course," Bela nodded. "Just… give us a moment to get everything together, right?"

* * *

Considering Castiel's apprehension about making this trip, the actual journey to the past had been fairly simple. They'd taken half an hour to ensure that they'd gathered together all the anti-angel tools at their disposal, ranging from the angelic blades they'd received from the angels they'd killed to a few jars of holy oil, before Castiel had sent the four of them back into the past.  
  
Granted, Bela was concerned about the fact that Castiel collapsed as soon as he and the other four had arrived in the middle of a street in 1978, particularly given his bleeding nose and the fact that he had actually spat blood before he collapsed, but it had been easy enough for Bela and Sam to negotiate a room for the comatose angel in the nearest hotel. Dean had made a brief joke about them buying stocks in Microsoft if they had to stay here for too long, but he'd managed to find a suitable car to take them to John and Mary's current house.  
  
"Oh God," Deanna said, after they had been driving for a few hours, looking anxiously out of the car window.  
  
"What?" Bela looked at the woman she was still surprised she'd come to consider a friend.  
  
"I'm going to see Mary again."  
  
"Ah," Sam and Bela said simultaneously, as Dean's grip tightened on the wheel.  
  
"Yes," Deanna acknowledged, her expression showing her fear and guilt at the idea. "As far as she knows, I just vanished from her life the same day that her father died after she made a deal with Azazel to save John; what is she even going to _think_ of me?"  
  
"You could… say that you went on the run to find some way of killing Azazel?" Sam asked.  
  
"For five years?"  
  
"We bought it from Dad when he went off on his own for a year after he spent two decades training us to kick the thing's ass," Dean acknowledged. "You already knew Mary wanted out; you could say that seeing Yellow-Eyes possess your husband push you to find another way to deal with that particular son of a bitch, and you thought Mary would be safer if you stayed away from her."  
  
"That… sounds plausible," Bela reflected. "I mean, no offence, but this family _does_ have a history of getting obsessive when it comes to hunting things…"  
  
"That was generally Samuel's problem rather than mine," Deanna observed, before she shook her head with a grim smile. "But if I make it clear that I took that hunt particularly personally… maybe I could say that you two told me just how dangerous this thing was…"  
  
"And maybe give the impression you actually saw her make the deal with John before our yellow-eyed nemesis abandoned your husband's body," Bela added. "Considering that Mary was already planning to make a clean break from hunting once John proposed, you could argue that you thought it would be easier if you didn't give her the option to get involved in that particular hunt."  
  
"It's not perfect, but I think we can all agree that I'm never going to come out of this looking good," Deanna observed with a grim smile. "Well… let's just get there before I change my mind."  
  
"Check," Dean said, pressing his foot down on the gas pedal and picking up speed. For the rest of the drive, the four time-travellers simply sat in silence, exchanging the occasional anxious glance but otherwise not saying a word to each other before they finally reached the house that had been the last true home Dean and John had ever known before they learned the truth about the world after Mary's death.  
  
As they parked the car opposite the Winchesters' house, the four got out of the car, before Dean looked uncertainly at the other three.  
  
"Are… are we really doing this?"  
  
"We already talked about Grandma's issues-"  
  
"That's not the only problem here right now," Dean cut his brother off. "Seriously, we're trying to tell Mom and Dad that an angel's come Back from the Future to go _Terminator_ on them?"  
  
"You do know that neither of those are out yet-"  
  
"That just makes it weirder!" Dean protested. "This whole thing is-"  
  
" _Dean_ ," Deanna stared firmly at her grandson. "You already talked me into this; let's just… tell Mary something's after her and we can work it out from there."  
  
"Right…" Dean said, looking around the small group before he sighed. "OK, let's just get this over with."  
  
With those grim words, he walked up to the door and knocked, waiting a few moments before Mary opened it.  
  
"What-?" she began, her gaze moving from anxiously studying Dean and Bela to take in Deanna in more explicit shock. " _Mom_?"  
  
"Hello, Mary," Deanna smiled at her daughter, tears gleaming in the corners of her eyes. "I know that this is a-"  
  
Deanna's words were interrupted when Mary wrapped her arms around her mother, shoulders shaking as she pressed her face against Deanna's shoulder. The older woman reached up to give her daughter an awkward pat on the back, but the moment only lasted briefly before Mary stepped back to hit Deanna in the shoulder.  
  
"What the _Hell_ are you doing here?" she said, her voice low as she looked urgently between her mother and the other two familiar faces. "And with _them_? Dad _died_ and you-"  
  
"It… it's a long story," Deanna looked apologetically at her daughter. "Dean and Bela… I've been helping them with something-"  
  
"Go," Mary said, stepping back from her mother with a new coldness in her gaze.  
  
"Mary, this isn't-"  
  
"I don't want to hear it, _Mother_ ," Mary cut her off. "I have a new life here now, and John Winchester-"  
  
"My ears are burning," John cut in, smiling around at the group as he stepped into the door, only for his eyes to widen as a tentative grin crossed his face. "Uh… Deanna?"  
  
"That's me," Deanna nodded at John with an awkward smile. "Sorry I couldn't be at your wedding, but… well, things came up."  
  
"Family stuff," Dean put in awkwardly. "We're… uh… Mary's cousins; we've been helping with… _things_ since Samuel bought it."  
  
"I should clarify that I'm _not_ her cousin," Bela added, stepping forward to place an arm around Dean's shoulder. "Or what Dean and I do in our spare time would _not_ be legal."  
  
"Right," John smiled at her before he looked at Dean. "Does… that have anything to do with why you're here?"  
  
"Just passing through and thought we'd drop in on our cousin," Dean clarified, holding out a hand to awkwardly shake his father's. "Dean."  
  
"John," John smiled at the man he didn't know was his future son. "You… look familiar."  
  
"Really?" Dean said, quickly concluding that this was one moment that didn't need supernatural explanation; he and John had only met briefly when he helped John buy the Impala, so there was no reason for the man to remember him that clearly. "Yeah, you do, too, actually, you know? We must have met sometime. Small towns, right? Got to love 'em."  
  
"I'm Bela," Bela added, stepping forward to shake John's hand with a smile. "And this is Sam; he's Dean's brother."  
  
"Sam?" John looked at the taller man with a smile. "Mary's father was a Sam."  
  
"Family names," Deanna shrugged. "It's amazing how they stick."  
  
"Right…" John said, looking at Sam as he realised that the other man was still holding onto his hand. "You OK, pal? You look a little spooked."  
  
"Oh," Sam said, releasing his grip on his father's hand. "Oh, yeah; just a… long trip."  
  
"Yeah," Dean nodded.  
  
"Well," John indicated the house behind him with a smile, "as long as you're here, care to come for a beer?"  
  
"Sounds good," Dean grinned again.  
  
It had been an awkward meeting, but at least Mary seemed willing to accept her mother's new travelling companions in the name of avoiding awkward discussions in front of John, even if she clearly had some questions about how and why her mother had come back to her like this.  
  
 _And why do I suddenly feel like I'm about to throw up…?_


	62. Defending Family

"Are you sure you're OK, Sam?" John looked curiously at his time-displaced son as the young man sat at the table opposite his parents, Dean sitting alongside him while Bela and Deanna sat in chairs they'd pulled away from the main dining table.

The part of Bela that would also be the cynical thief had to stifle a laugh at the thought that just crossed her mind; after decades developing a reputation as a hunter of exceptional skill, right now John Winchester was the most clueless person in the room.

"W- oh, yeah, yeah," Sam nodded awkwardly at John, still staring at the mother he'd never seen before. "Um… I'm just… uh… you are so beautiful."

"In a totally wholesome family way," Bela clarified, patting Sam on the shoulder. "He gets emotional about it."

"We haven't seen Mary in… it's been a while, and- see, she's the spitting image of our mom," Dean clarified with an awkward grin.

"Eerie," Sam nodded in acknowledgement.

"So… how are you guys related?" John asked curiously. "I mean…"

"Samuel's family had several branches that broke off from his a while ago," Deanna took up the explanation. "It's getting into second cousins twice removed, a grandparent marrying someone young enough to be his _grand_ daughter and still having a child with her… Trust me, we'd need a lot of paperwork if you wanted me to tell you _exactly_ how these two are related to him, but it's there."

"Right…" John nodded before he turned his attention to Dean. "So you knew Samuel?"

"Met him once or twice," Dean shrugged, briefly thinking about mentioning the grandfather thing but decided that there were no circumstances under which it wouldn't sound off at best. "Bela and I were just in the area when Deanna needed help getting back on her feet after… well, after he… and, well, here we are."

"Oh," John said, reaching over to take Mary's hand as he looked sympathetically at Dean; Bela had no idea if Dean had just exaggerated his discomfort or played up his own emotional insecurity at this point, but either way it seemed to have worked well. "That heart attack… a real tragedy, huh?"

"And a shock," Deanna nodded, even as she shot a brief warning glance at Bela. Evidently Deanna was just as unsure as Bela was if John's memories of events relating to Samuel's death had been explicitly altered or if Mary had just created a story to explain it, but in any case, it was safer to go with what he believed right now.

"So," John asked, as the awkward emotional moment passed, "what are you guys doing in town, anyway?"

"Uh… business, you know," Dean shrugged.

"What kind of work?"

"Antiquities research and bounty hunting," Bela shrugged before anyone else could speak.

"Huh," John looked at the former thief in surprise. "That's an… unusual mix."

"It lets us explore a range of strengths," Bela shrugged. "The Campbells had quite a few items in their possession; Deanna came to me to unload a few things after Samuel passed on, we got to talking, and one thing led to another."

"But how-?"

" _OK_ ," Mary stood up and looked firmly at the group. "It's getting late, and I have to get dinner ready; you four should really-"

"Stay for dinner," John cut his wife off, smiling awkwardly at the four time-travellers while looking in confusion at his wife. "I mean, we haven't had any real news from Mary's side of the family since the wedding-"

The sudden ring of the phone interrupted John's explanation, prompting him to look apologetically at his guests before he walked off to answer the phone.

"Look," Mary said, looking urgently between her mother and her unknown children, "you have to leave before he comes back-"

"Mary, this isn't-" Deanna began.

"Mom, I last saw you five _years_ ago when my father died after he became the host for a demon; you can't just say you went off hunting with this… relative I never heard of and act like you're all one big happy family," Mary hissed urgently, her clenching fists the only sign of the anger she had to be fighting to suppress. "I don't care why you're here, but-"

"You and John are in danger," Sam cut her off urgently.

"What are you talking about?" Mary said, hostility replaced by confusion.

"Something's coming for you," Dean explained.

"Demon?" Mary asked, clearly falling back on her old habits.

"Actually," Bela said with a grim smile, "it's from the other place."

"The… other place?" Mary looked at the younger woman in confusion. "Uh… you mean-?"

"We mean Heaven," Bela clarified firmly.

"Heaven," Mary repeated, looking at Bela for a moment before turning to look at Deanna. "Is she seriously-?"

"An angel wants to kill you," Deanna confirmed.

Judging by the expression on Mary's face, Bela had the strong impression that the woman she would privately consider a mother-in-law would have burst out laughing if anyone else had given her that particular news.

"You… you're serious, aren't you?" she looked at her mother in shock.

"Deadly," Bela affirmed as she nodded at the younger blonde. "For what it's worth, we're fairly sure they're not all _that_ bad as a species-"

"But when they're twice as strong as demons, it only takes a few being dicks to make a particularly bad impression," Dean observed grimly.

"I'm- but why would an angel want to kill us?" Mary protested.

"That's a long story that this is _not_ the time for," Bela said resolutely. "We need to get you and John out of here and work on our defences… and am I the only one thinking that he's being too quiet?"

When they found a small note by the phone in the hall stating that John had gone out and would be back later, Bela was briefly amused at this further evidence that they were in the past before she decided to focus on the immediate problem of saving John Winchester from being affected by the supernatural over five years in advance.

 _God, why do I let these three drag me into these situations_?

Bela wondered if the relative ridiculousness of this situation was the reason she felt so queasy right now…

* * *

Dean wasn't sure if this situation would have been more or less awkward if he'd been here with Deanna or Bela rather than Sam, but he had to admit that a small part of him was actually touched at the opportunity they'd been given. After Mary had given them the address of the garage where John worked right now (apparently the same one where John had worked when Mary died, although Dean admitted he might be wrong), he and Sam had accompanied Mary to save John while Deanna and Bela went on ahead to an old family property that his grandmother was fairly sure would still be safe.  
  
Despite Dean's discomfort at relying on a woman who'd been out of practise for the last few years and had never actually fought an angel before, he'd been impressed at how his mother had done against Anna when they'd found the angel in the garage; that bit with the crowbar would have at least slowed down a demon long enough for Mary to get her weapon back, even if it didn't do much against an angel. As it was, Anna was still a potential threat, but at least the sigil Sam had used to drive her off should buy them enough time to get in a more defensible position.  
  
"Monsters," John said from his position in the Impala's driving seat, looking incredulously at the road ahead as he listened to his wife's true history. "Monsters?"  
  
"Yes," Mary said, looking out of the window rather than facing her husband.  
  
"Monsters are real," John said once again (Dean wondered if his father had taken the news better when he'd heard it from Missouri the first time around; the psychic had been blunt with them, but she'd probably also known what they could take at that point).  
  
"I'm sorry," Mary turned back to her husband. "I didn't know-"  
  
"And you fight them?" John cut her off, looking at Dean and Sam in the mirror. "All of you? Even Mary's mom?"  
  
"Yeah," Sam conceded. "It's… kind of the family business."  
  
"And Bela?"  
  
"She specialised in tracking supernatural artefacts," Dean shrugged. "Used to just sell 'em on for her own benefit, but… stuff happened and she ended up joining us."  
  
"Supernatural artefacts," John repeated, shaking his head in bemusement. "We're not talking like the Holy Grail or Excalibur here, are we?"  
  
"Nothing that big," Dean smiled in an awkward attempt to defuse the situation even as it was clear his father wouldn't appreciate the sentiment.  
  
"John, try to understand-" Mary began.  
  
"She didn't exactly have a choice-" Dean put in.  
  
"Shut up, all of you!" John looked at the rear-view mirror in exasperation. "Look, not another word, or so help me, I will turn this car around!"  
  
It was far from the place for that kind of humour, but hearing those words left Dean feeling as though he was experiencing the kind of family trip he'd never had the chance to experience when he was a kid, even if the circumstances sucked beyond belief.  
  
He just hoped the safehouse Deanna had been thinking of was still valid…

* * *

"Not bad," Dean nodded in approval at his grandmother as the Winchesters joined Deanna and Bela, assessing the location where they were going to make their stand. The place was poorly decorated and needed a few coats of paint to be considered liveable, but at least the walls were secure and they were far enough away from any potential neighbours to limit the risk of collateral damage.  
  
"It's been in the family for a few decades," Mary shrugged, before she crouched down to flip a round carpet with a familiar sigil on the bottom. "Devil's trap; pure iron fixtures, of course."  
  
"And there's a good amount of salt and holy water in the pantry, along with knives and guns," Deanna added, raising her hands defensively as Dean glared at her. "I appreciate that it won't stop Anna, but it should give us time until we can deliver a killing blow."  
  
"With what?" John asked.  
  
"These, for one," Bela said, pulling out her angel blade and showing it to the man she discreetly considered her father-in-law.  
  
"And these," Dean added as he tossed a duffel bag onto the table, pulling out a piece of paper with the angel-banishing sigil on it. "If we put this up and she comes close, we beam her right off the starship."  
  
"And this is holy oil," Sam added, picking up the stone gourd Castiel had acquired. "It's like a… a devil's trap for angels; we'll show you how it works."  
  
"So… what's the deal with that thing on the paper?" John asked, as Mary followed Sam and Deanna into another room.  
  
"It's a sigil," Bela explained. "Put it on a wall or a door and-"  
  
"How big?"  
  
"John-" Dean began.  
  
"What?" John said, swallowing slightly as he looked at his son. "You might have treated me like a fool, but I'm not useless; I can draw a damn- whatever-it-is- a sigil."  
  
"Why don't you-?" Dean began.  
  
"The sigil has to be done in blood," Bela cut Dean off, looking over at her boyfriend with a pointed stare as she indicated John. "This man has been in a war already, Dean; he's got what it takes to do this."  
  
"…Point," Dean said, looking over at John, only to be beaten to the punch as John picked up a blade from the table and sliced his palm, prompting a chuckle from Dean.  
  
"What?" John looked curiously at Dean.  
  
"Just… for a moment, you reminded me of my dad," Dean replied, a smile on his face as he studied the father who was currently barely his age.  
  
Bela didn't need her experience with Dean to know that he was privately enjoying this; even if John Winchester didn't know it, it had been a long time since Dean had gone on a hunt with his father.  
  
 _Whatever else you can say about the Winchesters, you can't deny that they have some fascinating family bonding activities_.


	63. Meeting Michael

Watching his father 'paint' an anti-angel sigil on the wall with his own blood, Sam suddenly wasn't sure if he should consider himself John's son or his protector at this point. On the one hand, it was hard to get past the years he'd spent seeing John as a distant 'protector' who pushed him and Dean to their limit in the name of keeping them 'safe', but right now, it only took a few moments to realise that this man had barely any idea what he was doing with himself…

"That's really good," he said, trying to distract himself from his awkward thoughts about this temporally complex mess.

"You come to check on me?" John asked as he stepped back from the wall, wiping the blood from his hand.

"Uh…" Sam said, lost for a better response. "I wanted to say I… I'm sorry about all this. I-I know it's a lot."

"Look," John said resolutely, "how long have you known about this...hunting stuff?"

"Pretty much forever," Sam said, deciding not to go into detail about how Dean had been the one to tell him everything on that grim Christmas so many years ago. "My dad raised me in it."

"You're serious?" John looked at him incredulously. "Who the hell does that to a kid?"

"Well, I mean, for the record, Mary's parents did," Sam said, lost for a better response to the bizarre idea of John Winchester expressing a distaste of John Winchester's style of parenting.

"I don't care," John protested. "You know, what kind of irresponsible bastard lets a child anywhere near- Y-you know, you could've been killed!"

"I, uh… came kind of close," Sam said, smiling slightly at the surrealness of this situation.

"The number it must've done on your head…" John looked at him with a pained expression. "Your father was supposed to protect you!"

"He was trying," Sam said. "He died trying. Believe me."

Thinking back on his childhood, Sam found himself faced with a new sense of sympathy for the man he'd spent so many years resenting, even as he acknowledged that the young man he was addressing wouldn't appreciate the full meaning of what he was about to say.

"I used to be mad at him," he continued, sitting down on the bench under the window, needing to be somewhere slightly more comfortable to focus on what he was about to say. "I mean, I used to… I used to hate the guy. But now I… I get it; he was… just doing the best he could… and he was trying to keep it together in- in- in this impossible situation. See, my mom… um…"

He'd spent so long living only with a memory and that brief interaction with her ghost that it was actually surprisingly hard to realise that he had an actually memory of his mother that he could use now, even if it was a few years 'early'.

"She was amazing, beautiful, and… she was the love of his life," Sam continued. "And she got killed. And… I think he would have gone crazy if he didn't do something."

He once again found himself reflecting on his thoughts after Max had killed himself; John might have been practically a master of the 'tough love' school of parenting, but he had never unnecessarily hurt his children or blamed them for anything that they weren't directly responsible for.

"Truth is," he continued, looking at the young man who would experience the lifestyle he was describing from the other side in his own future, "my dad died before I got to tell him that… I understand… why he did what he did. And I forgive him… for what it did to us; I do. And I just… I love him."

"And that's more than some of us can get," an unexpected voice said.

"Bela?" Sam looked at the ex-thief in surprise as she walked into the room. "You-"

"Lips are sealed," she nodded at the two men with a smile before looking at John. "If it helps, I never met Dean and Sam's father, but I knew him by reputation, and that reputation was of a man whose first priority was always trying to keep his sons safe."

"By getting them involved in… all this?" John asked, even if Sam noted that he sounded less hostile about the idea now.

"When he was sure that they were going to be targets no matter what he did?" Bela replied. "I'm not saying that he was a good father, but that's the kind of situation where there's no good solution, so it's best to take the option that you can be fairly sure will keep more people alive."

Once again, Sam was left to idly ponder the surrealness of the situation. Just over a year ago, he had no problem with the idea of Bela Talbot being in Hell, but now, faced with a threat to his parents from angels, he was glad to have her at his side as they faced this threat.

* * *

"OK," Mary turned to look at Dean and Deanna as she finished pouring holy oil on the floor. "You said you'd explain everything when we had a minute, and we have that. Why does an angel want me dead?"  
  
"That's… complicated," Deanna looked awkwardly at her daughter. "This angel's been through a lot, and she has… issues."  
  
"And why am I a target?" Mary said pointedly. "I didn't even know they existed until you showed up in my life again.  
  
"Like your mom said, it's complicated," Dean shrugged.  
  
"Fine." Mary shot Dean a cool glare as she stood up. "I'm all ears."  
  
"You're just gonna have to trust us, OK?" Dean said.  
  
"I've been trusting you all day," Mary said, before turning to look at Deanna in a particularly pointed manner. "On the word of a woman I haven't seen in _five years_."  
  
"And if I could tell you everything to explain that, I would, but you have to believe-"  
  
"I stopped having to believe _anything_ you had to say to me when you vanished from my life with two strangers after Dad _died_ ," Mary said, walking up to glare coldly at her mother for a moment before she turned back to Dean. "You tell me, or I'm walking out that door."  
  
For a moment Dean just looked at Mary in silence, but as his mother turned around, his resolve broke.  
  
"I'm your son."  
  
"Dean-" Deanna began.  
  
" _What_?" Mary looked at him in shock.  
  
"I'm your son," Dean repeated, walking slowly up to her. "Sorry, I don't know how else to say it. Sam, Bela and I are from the year 2010; we got zapped back here by a friendly angel, and the first time we were here, we dragged Grandma here back with us."  
  
"G- _Grandma_?" Mary repeated, looking at Deanna in shock. "You-you're his- you can't expect-"  
  
"Their surname is Winchester," Deanna affirmed. "You named Dean after me and Sam after your father."  
  
"When I would get sick," Dean took up the explanation, his voice cracking as his mother started to cry while she stared at him, "you would make me tomato-rice soup, because that's what your mom made you. And instead of a lullaby… you would sing "Hey Jude", 'cause that's your favorite Beatles song."  
  
"I… I don't believe it," Mary practically whispered as she shook her head through her sobs. "No…"  
  
"I'm sorry," Dean said grimly, "but it's true."  
  
"I raised my kids-" Mary began.  
  
"You didn't," Deanna cut her off, tears in her own eyes as she looked at her daughter. "You were dead."  
  
"What?" Mary's attention returned to her mother.  
  
"Yellow-eyed demon," Dean put in, refusing to force his grandmother to answer that question even if it wasn't much easier for him. "He killed you, and… John became a hunter to get revenge. He raised us in this life. Listen to me. A demon comes into Sam's nursery exactly six months after he's born. November second, nineteen eighty-three. Remember that date. And whatever you do, do not go in there. You wake up that morning and you take Sam and you run."  
  
"That's not good enough, Dean," Sam suddenly said, Dean and the two women turning to look at the younger Winchester as he stood in the doorway. "Wherever she goes, Azazel will find her… and me."  
  
"Well, what else can she do?" Deanna asked. "Just go?"  
  
"Why not?" Sam looked at Dean, as a moment of silent understanding passed between them.  
  
" _What_?" Deanna looked between the two men in outrage. "You're not seriously-!"  
  
"When this is all over, you walk away and never look back," Sam said firmly.  
  
"And then we're never born," Dean nodded back at his brother.  
  
"Excuse me?" Bela's voice cut in, the thief-turned-hunter walking resolutely into the room to glare between Sam, Dean and Mary. "Are you seriously suggesting that you _erase yourselves from history_?"  
  
"I-I can't," Mary shook her head, clearly sharing Bela's rejection of the idea. "You're saying that you're my children, and now you're saying-"  
  
"And it doesn't _matter_ anyway!" Bela cut Mary off. "In case you've forgotten, there _are_ alternatives; taking yourselves off the board may not actually stop anything!"  
  
"It's got to be worth a shot-"  
  
"I can't," Mary said.  
  
"Look, I get that you want that normal life, but you can't have it," Sam said, ignoring Bela as he looked at his mother. "I'm sorry, but it's all going to go rotten; you are going to die, and your children will be cursed unless you-"  
  
" _I'm already pregnant_!"  
  
"Ah," Bela said, her gaze suddenly drawn to Mary's chest, unable to shake off the sudden bizarre thought that the man she loved was currently in two places at once.  
  
She didn't know why, but suddenly, as she looked at Mary caressing her stomach, she was struck by the sensation that she should be doing the same, as though there was some deeper connection… some other detail about this moment…  
  
"Oh God," Bela thought, as the moments of sickness she'd felt over the last few days suddenly clicked into place.  
  
"What?" Deanna looked at her. "Is there something-?"  
  
"I…" Bela said, suddenly unable to restrain the urge to smile incredulously at the situation facing them. "I'm pregnant too."  
  
" _What_?" Sam and Deanna yelled, Mary looking at Bela's chest in shock as Dean suddenly looked like he wasn't sure if he wanted to laugh or be sick.  
  
"You… you sure?" he said at last, walking over to place a hand on her cheek. "I mean, I wondered, but you… you never said…"  
  
"I didn't know before, but I… it just…" Bela replied, smiling at the sheer incredulity of the situation. "I've been feeling off ever since Carthage, and I was nearly sick a few mornings back, but then Mary said that she was pregnant and I just… it _fit_."  
  
"Oh my God," Dean said, voice low as he wrapped his arms around Bela, before stepping back to look at her with a tentative smile. "This is… I mean, the timing sucks beyond belief, but it's just…"  
  
"We've got a…" John walked into the room, halting as he took in the confusing mix of emotional people in front of him, his wife with her hands on her stomach while Sam and Deanna looked uncomfortably at the embracing Dean and Bela. "Is something-?"  
  
"Later," Deanna cut him off with a firm stare. "What happened?"  
  
"Those… blood sigils," John clarified. "They're gone."  
  
"Gone as in…?" Sam asked.  
  
"I drew one on the back door, turned around, and when I looked back it was just a smudge," John explained urgently.  
  
"He's right," Dean said, walking over to look at one of the sigils he'd carved earlier, now burnt into the wall with the blood gone as though it had been triggered.  
  
"There's no more holy oil," Mary added, examining the oil circle she'd poured earlier.  
  
A high-pitched noise suddenly filled the house, Bela immediately recognising it as an angel's voice even as she and Sam drew their angel blades. As the windows and lightbulbs shattered, the room was plunged into darkness, the room falling into silence as the door flew open to reveal a young man in a suit who looked vaguely familiar.  
  
"Who the hell are you?" Dean asked.  
  
"I'm Uriel," the angel said.  
  
"Oh crap," Bela observed, as the man's gaze fixed on her; if they couldn't stop Mary dying, she was _extremely_ uncomfortable at the notion of killing Uriel in the past, even before she started thinking about the temporal ramifications of killing a man with a weapon she might not acquire if he died now…  
  
When Anna appeared at the other exit, the Winchesters immediately leapt into action, Dean charging for Uriel while Sam attacked Anna. As the brothers were thrown aside, John tried to grab Sam's dropped angel blade, but Anna threw him through the wall into the house's back yard. As Anna stabbed Sam with a portion of the wall, Deanna picked up the fallen blade and slashed at the redheaded angel, only for Anna to spin around and grab the weapon.  
  
"I'm sorry," Anna said as she looked at Deanna. "But this is-"  
  
"Solving _nothing_!" Deanna glared at the angel. "You're condemning everyone my grandsons will save to death just because you can't-!"  
  
A sudden intense glow from outside the house drew everyone's attention away from Deanna and Anna, as John walked into the room with a new sense of purpose about his manner.  
  
"Anna," John said, his voice suddenly deeper.  
  
"Michael," Anna virtually whispered in horror.  
  
The watching humans barely had time to take in this revelation before Michael-in-John placed a hand on Anna's shoulder, incinerating the time-travelling angel before anyone else in the room could move to stop him, her body reduced to a charred corpse in moments before it collapsed into ash. With Anna gone, 'John' turned to glare at the other angel in the room.  
  
"Michael," the angel who was apparently the younger Uriel said. "I didn't know."  
  
"Goodbye, Uriel," Michael said, snapping his fingers as Uriel vanished.  
  
"What did you do to John?" Mary said, trembling as she stared at her husband.  
  
"John is fine," the archangel possessing the eldest Winchester said solemnly.  
  
"Who- what are you?" Mary asked. In response, Michael reached over to touch Mary's forehead, waiting for her to fall to the ground before he turned to Dean.  
  
"Well," the archangel said, "I'd say this conversation is long overdue, wouldn't you?"  
  
"…Michael, right?" Bela said apprehensively.  
  
"Quite," Michael said, raising his hands towards the two women before Dean stepped between them.  
  
"Knock them out and we don't talk," he said resolutely, before pointing at the wounded Sam. "And fix him."  
  
"We talk first," Michael said. "Then I fix your darling little Sammy."  
  
"How did you get John to be your vessel?" Bela asked.  
  
"I told him I could save his wife, and he said yes."  
  
"I guess they oversold me being your one and only vessel," Dean countered.  
  
"Of course…" Bela mused, shaking her head as she studied Michael-in-John. "Considering that Lucifer's walking around in someone else, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised that you have alternatives too."  
  
"True vessels are not our only vessels," Michael confirmed. "Archangels require our true vessels to harness our full power, but I can still draw a degree of power from your bloodline if I need to take action Earth."  
  
"Right…" Deanna said, looking awkwardly at the archangel. "So what do you want with Dean?"  
  
"You really don't know the answer to that?"  
  
"You have to know Dean is _never_ going to say 'yes' to you," Bela stated firmly.  
  
"Exactly," Dean nodded. "You should have got that by now, so what's the point of this?"  
  
"I just want you to understand what you and I have to do."  
  
"Oh, I get it," Dean countered. "You got beef with your brother? Well, get some therapy, pal; don't take it out on my planet!"  
  
"You're wrong," Michael replied, his voice low. "Lucifer defied our father, and he betrayed me, but still… I don't want this any more than you would want to kill Sam-"  
  
"But you're still going to _do_ it," Bela cut Michael off, glaring at him. "Even when John suggested that Dean might _have_ to kill Sam, he never seriously _planned_ to do it! You can call it God's plan all you want, but you're still actively intending to kill your _brother_!"  
  
"From the beginning, our father knew how this was going to end," Michael said solemnly. "And I am a good son."  
  
"Trust me, pal," Dean glared at the angel wearing his father. "Take it from someone who knows; being a good son is a dead-end street."  
  
"And you think you know better than my father?" Michael asked. "One unimportant little man. What makes you think you get to choose?"  
  
"We have free will," Bela stated.  
  
"Which means that we get to believe that we can _choose_ what we do with our 'unimportant little lives'," Dean affirmed, shooting a grateful smile at Bela's support.  
  
"You're wrong," Michael said, turning solemnly to look at his destined vessel. "You know how I know? Think of a million random acts of chance that let John and Mary be born, to meet, to fall in love, to have the two of you. Think of the million random choices that you make, and yet how each and every one of them brings you closer to your destiny. Do you know why that is? Because it's not random. It's not chance. It's a plan that is playing itself out perfectly. Free will's an illusion, Dean-"  
  
"It's not," Bela cut in.  
  
"And what makes you say that?" Michael looked at her with a mocking smile.  
  
"Because we've already changed history once, or Deanna wouldn't be standing here," Bela said resolutely. "And I'm fairly sure Castiel chose to save _me_ of his own free will as well."  
  
"And what makes you so sure we didn't anticipate that?" Michael asked, his gaze shifting to her stomach. "After all, even if you somehow prevent this apocalypse, we will need Dean's bloodline intact for the future-"  
  
" _Touch_ my baby and I will _end you_!" Bela yelled, brandishing her angel blade under Michael's throat before she realised who she was physically threatening.  
  
"Your child will be protected," Michael said, looking at her with a nonchalance that made Bela wish she could hit him just once to wipe that smug look off his face as he turned back to Dean. "You know, it could be worse. Unlike my brothers, I won't leave you a drooling mess when I'm done wearing you."  
  
"And what about my dad?" Dean asked.  
  
"Better than new," Michael affirmed. "In fact, I'm gonna do your mom and dad a favour."  
  
"That would involve wiping their memories of this particular event, I take it?" Deanna glared pointedly at the angel in her son-in-law's body. "And what gives you the right-?"  
  
"I'm giving your daughter what she wants," Michael cut Deanna off. "She can go back to her husband, her family-"  
  
"She's gonna walk right into that nursery!" Dean protested.  
  
"Obviously," Michael said, turning back to him. "And you always knew that was going to play out one way or another; you can't fight City Hall."  
  
With that closing statement, Michael crouched down to place his fingers against Sam's forehead, the youngest Winchester vanishing from the house so abruptly that the piece of wall that had once been in Sam's side clattered to the ground.  
  
"Where's-?" Bela began.  
  
"He's home," Michael cut her off. "Safe and sound, just as the rest of you will be. I'll see you soon, Dean."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This particular part of the storyline isn't over, I assure you; considering the additional revelations that occurred while they were all in the past, I felt that the final scene deserved more than to just get tagged onto the aftermath of Dean's 'talk' with Michael…


	64. Planned Parenthood

Back in the hotel room where they'd started this particular jaunt into the past, Bela and Deanna could do little more than sit on the side of the beds and look anxiously at Castiel, the angel lying unconscious on the bed. Nobody was sure if he'd come back on his own power or had been sent back by Michael along with the rest of them, but either way, after the power their angelic ally had apparently expended on this latest mission, they all agreed that it was best to let him rest. Dean had made a brief call to Bobby to confirm that they were back safe and well before he and Sam had gone off to get a few beers to consider their next move, leaving the two women to sit anxiously with the unconscious angel.

By some unspoken agreement, none of them had said anything about Bela's personal discovery so far, but when Dean and Sam got back with a six-pack of beers, Deanna and Bela had accepted the drinks in the understanding that it was a cue to talk.

"Well…" Dean said, as he thoughtfully studied his drink. "This is it."

"This is what?" Sam asked as he took a sip of his own beer.

"Team Free Will," Dean affirmed, indicating each person in the room with the bottle. "One ex-blood junkie, one dropout with six bucks to his name, a thief who got screwed over by life before the supernatural got into it, a time-traveler who's now barely old enough to pass as her grandkids' mom, and Mr. Comatose over there."

"With a paralysed truck driver, a forcibly retired bar owner, and an ex-waitress with a similar pedigree as optional extras," Bela added.

"It's not exactly funny," Deanna observed even as she allowed herself a slight smile.

"You think I'm laughing?" Dean glanced at his grandmother. "In case you missed the memo, we screw this up, those bastards want to keep my kid on the table for a future battle even _after_ they decimate the planet."

"They all say we'll say yes," Sam observed solemnly.

"I know," Dean mused, shaking his head as he took another sip of his beer. "It's getting annoying."

"What if they're right?"

"They're not," Dean and Bela said resolutely.

"And if you change that, I'm going to hit you," Bela glared at Sam. "I am _not_ going to give birth to a child whose uncle let Lucifer use him as a weapon."

"I'm not saying I can imagine a situation where I'd do it," Sam raised his hands defensively. "But… I've been weak before."

"Sam Winchester," Deanna looked firmly at him. "Ruby got to you when you were in an emotionally vulnerable situation without anyone else to rely on; that's not the same thing as being _weak_."

"Michael got Dad to say yes."

"That was different," Dean said firmly. "Anna was about to kill Mom."

"And if you could save Mom… or guarantee that Bela would be left alone… what would you say?"

Dean's lack of answer inspired surprisingly conflicted feelings in Bela.

On the one hand, she felt uncomfortable at this kind of 'evidence' that she could make Dean abandon some of his usual resolutions when they were facing a threat that required him to make a firm stand, but on the other hand, the notion that she meant that much to him…

"We can still do this," she said.

"What makes you so sure?" Sam asked.

"Because you've always fought your hardest when it comes to family," Bela smiled slightly as she placed a hand on her stomach. "So how much harder are you going to fight when you have your niece or nephew's future to fight for?"

"Niece," Dean said automatically.

"You have a preference?" Deanna looked at her grandson in surprise.

"Not… exactly," Dean said, studying Bela with a slightly tentative smile as he put down his beer, clearly unsure how she'd react to what he was about to say. "I already knew."

"What?" Deanna and Bela looked sharply at Dean, while Sam raised his eyebrows inquiringly. In response, Dean reached into his pocket and handed Bela a piece of paper, which she took with a raised eyebrow before her eyes widened as she read it.

"'When you're home, enter for Johanna November 20'?" she read, looking back at Dean in confusion. "But I never wrote-"

"You did," Dean affirmed. "Your future self stuck that in my pocket before I got sent back, and… well, I got the idea."

"Enter for Johanna?" Sam repeated. "What- oh."

"You got this from Bela's future self?" Deanna looked at Dean in surprise. "You mean… in the future, you two had a _daughter_?"

"Johanna Winchester," Dean nodded with an affectionate smile at the memory of that casually-dressed little girl who'd called him 'Daddy' before dragging 'Unky Cas' off to read to her. "A sweet kid even in the middle of the apocalypse, who made a drugged-out and despairing Cas smile when he could barely give a crap about anything else, who made the future me feel like he could still be a hero rather than crossing so many lines-"

"Just a- I'm not saying she's not worth saving, but… you _knew_!" Bela looked at Dean indignantly. "We had a _daughter_ in the future and you just… you were going to make sure I conceived your _child_ without even _telling_ me about her?"

"It's not like I was planning to _make_ you have sex with me then, but we were all just freaking out over how we got away from the goddamn _devil_ without any casualties and…"

Dean shrugged helplessly. "I wasn't even sure if I wanted to do it until the time came when it was… OK, it's crude, but when it came down to do it or lose it, I made a choice."

"I… I'm not…" Bela said, looking between Dean and Deanna as though she wasn't sure who to say this to. "I can't be… my mother died… my step-mother never cared… how can I look after a child? I left my cat behind after that mess with the rabbit's foot; I don't even know how to _be_ a good mother…"

"Bela," Deanna stepped in, looking at the former thief with a tender smile. "You'll be fine."

"How can you know?" Bela looked back at Deanna, a tremble in her voice that Deanna had only seen when she and Bobby were hunting Bela's father.

"Because the moment you realised you were pregnant, your first response was to smile," Deanna grinned at her. "I'm not saying that you shouldn't be worried, because you're about to take on a great responsibility for something that will absolutely depend on you for everything even without the mess we're in right now, but when your first priority upon learning that you were to be a mother was worrying about how you can be a good one… speaking as one herself, that should always be your first goal when you become a parent."

"And as for me… I get that this was a call that I probably didn't have the right to make," Dean said, looking at Bela with a new sense of sincerity and raw emotion that nobody present was used to seeing him display. "I know I should have told you about her sooner, and I know that you have every right to hate me and… deal with it…"

He swallowed slightly as he spoke, clearly uncomfortable at even acknowledging abortion as an option, before he looked at Bela with a new resolution. "But if you're going to do anything because you think we can't do it… there was literally _one_ good thing in that crap-shack of a future; everything else I saw could go and screw itself into non-existence, but Johanna…"

He lowered his head for a moment before he looked back at Bela, both eyes gleaming with unshed tears as he smiled. "She was _happy_ … and we did that for a kid growing up in the Apocalypse…"

"Happy?" Bela repeated uncertainly.

"Yeah," Dean nodded at her with a soft smile. "She was happy… she made my future self want to be a better man, and she liked reading _Percy Jackson_ with 'Unky Cas', apparently."

"Percy Jackson?" Sam looked at Dean with an awkward smile. "Interesting choice."

"Sounded like Lucifer took most of the other gods down when he rose up; no harm giving her ideas about how that stuff worked when she'd never face anything to contradict it, I guess," Dean shrugged, before he looked more seriously at Bela. "Look, my point is, I would never make you do anything you don't want to do, and I'm sorry I took away your choice in that moment, but if you… I mean, if you want to…"

"I don't," Bela replied, reaching over to give his hand a tentative squeeze. "It's a big deal, but… if she made that much of an impression on you… I think I'd like to meet her."

"Hopefully under different circumstances," Sam observed.

"Yes," Deanna nodded, her smile shifting to a resolute glare as she looked around the rest of the room. "So, I take it we should start re-focusing our efforts on finding a new way to stop the Apocalypse before this little one's born?"

"Amen to that," Dean smiled briefly at his grandmother, reaching over to take Bela's hand with a warm but tentative smile.

They might have taken on a more personal responsibility on top of the greater challenge of thwarting the apocalypse, but as far as Dean was concerned, the knowledge that he would have a daughter made it all the more important for him to stop Michael and Lucifer destroying Earth.


	65. Cupid Goes Wild

Looking at the body of the latest victim in their current investigation, Dean didn't know if this was the sickest case he'd ever encountered in his life, but it was definitely up there in the top ten.

Monsters eating humans was one thing, but two humans actually _eating each other_ …

Sam might have been able to rule out possession of any sort, but that left them with no other definite possibilities to explore and an extremely disturbing case to process. On top of all that, it was Valentine's Day, and he was facing the quietest such day he'd ever experienced even though he was also in his most serious relationship ever. Bela and his grandmother were following up another hunt for a few cursed objects they'd discovered a lead on based on a contact of Bobby's, which fit in with Bela's concession to the request that she take it easier ever since they'd realised that she was pregnant.

Granted, Dean was fully aware that it was impossible to be in this business and ever find a hunt that could be guaranteed absolutely safe, but with the knowledge that there was another life at stake if she got hurt, Bela had agreed to avoid anything that involved murders taking place outside houses or buildings. Monsters might not always have rules against invitations, but it was generally easier for them to kill outside, particularly when there was no sign of anyone breaking into the relevant houses, so Bela and Deanna were sticking to the equivalent of 'locked room mysteries' for the immediate future, as those tended to be ghosts or spirits that wouldn't hurt others so long as the hunter was careful.

In any case, right now he was as sure of Bela's safety as he could be while she was in this line of work, which left Dean to follow up the current case with Sam. After an evening of research hadn't turned up any obvious leads, followed by an incident when another couple had committed suicide after an apparently bizarre argument involving their ability to spend time together, the brothers had found themselves conducting their own amateur autopsy on the latest victim, which Dean could only hope would give them some new clue to work on.

"Anything?" Dean asked, dismissing the urge to make a bad Valentine-themed joke with the hearts in front of them (if he was going to be a father, he had to start getting ready to make _some_ kind of better impression on the kid then what John Winchester had done for him and Sam).

"Maybe," Sam said, as he examined the hearts with a magnifying glass. "These hearts both have identical marks… it's like some kind of letter…"

"Enochian," Dean noted grimly, recalling all the time he'd spent studying the X-rays of the carvings Castiel had placed on their ribs.

"So what's this got to do with their deaths?" Sam asked.

"One way to find out," Dean mused, pulling out his phone and dialling the strangest number in his call history. "Cas, it's Dean. We got something here we need your input on… we're in room 31-C, basement level… St James Medical Centre in Sioux Falls, South Dakota."

"I'm there now," the angel said, appearing right in front of Dean.

"Yeah, I get that," Dean observed, wondering how long it would take for Cas to realise he couldn't do this kind of thing.

"I'm gonna hang up now," Castiel said awkwardly.

"Right," Dean agreed, as they each terminated the call. "Anyway, we found something on the hearts of our latest vics; need you to work out what it means."

"I see," Castiel said, picking up one of the hearts and studying it for a few moments. "You are correct; these are angelic marks. I imagine you'll find similar marks on the other couples' hearts as well."

"So… what are they?" Sam asked. "I mean, what do they mean?"

"It's a mark of union," Castiel said, looking solemnly at the organs as he put the heart back in the box. "This man and woman were intended to mate."

"OK, but who put them there?" Dean asked, deciding not to ask any more questions about who made that kind of choice

"Your people call them 'Cupid'."

"A what?" Sam looked at the angel in shock. "Hold on; wasn't he Roman?"

"What human myth has mistaken for 'Cupid' is actually a lower order of angel. Technically it's a cherub, third-class."

"So… less Roman god, more lower-ranking member of your little club?" Dean observed. "And how many of these guys are there?"

"There are dozens of them all over the world," Castiel confirmed, looking grimly out of a window.

"OK," Sam nodded, wondering briefly how a breed of angel had gotten mixed up with the Greek and Roman deities before deciding that wasn't important right now. "So you're saying-"

"That a Cupid has gone rogue and we have to stop him before he kills again."

"Naturally," Sam said, unnerved to see Castiel this vehement about something.

"Of course we do," Dean nodded. "I take it angel blades will take this guy down?"

"Indeed," Castiel said. "Now we simply need to find it."

* * *

"So," Dean said, as the waitress brought Dean his cheeseburger and Sam his salad, the two hunters and one angel sitting patiently in a gaudily-decorated restaurant, "you just happen to know he likes the cosmos at this place?"  
  
"This place is a nexus of human reproduction," Castiel said, looking thoughtfully at Dean's burger for a moment before he looked up at the hunter. "It's exactly the kind of… of garden the Cupid will come to… to pollinate."  
  
"Makes sense," Dean mused, taking a bite of his cheeseburger. As he chewed, he was surprised to find that he wasn't feeling quite as satisfied with the meal as he usually felt, but decided that it wasn't worth worrying about; he was probably just feeling hungrier than usual because of the stress of this latest case…  
  
"He's here," Castiel said, his hand moving from hovering over Dean's fries to indicate another table.  
  
"Where?" Sam whispered as he looked around silently. "I don't see anything."  
  
"There."  
  
"You mean the same-side-of-the-booth couple over there?" Dean said, noting a brief wind that had just blown through the restaurant earlier.  
  
"Meet me in the back," Castiel said as he vanished from the room. Hoping that nobody else had noticed the angel vanish, Dean quickly swallowed down the last of his burger- there was no sense in letting good food go to waste even if it wasn't especially appetising right now- and got up to head for the back door, followed closely by Sam.  
  
"Cas," Sam said, looking at the angel as he held one hand out in front of himself, "where is he?"  
  
"I have him tethered," Castiel replied. "Zoda kama mahrana. Manifest yourself."  
  
"So where is he?" Dean began, as the sudden ominous vibe faded from the room, before something grabbed him from behind and tightly squeezed his chest.  
  
"Here I am!" an unfamiliar eager voice said behind him.  
  
"Help!" Dean yelled.  
  
"Oh, help is on the way," the figure said, releasing Dean and walking over to Castiel, revealing that it was an overweight naked man with an eager grin. "Yes it is, yes it is! Hello, you!"  
  
Castiel simply grunted as the apparent cupid gave him an enthusiastic hug, as though trying to ignore the whole experience until it was over.  
  
"This is Cupid?" Dean asked.  
  
"Yes," Castiel affirmed, as the cupid released him and walked over to Sam with that same broad grin, hugging him despite the younger Winchester's attempt to get away.  
  
"Is this a fight?" Dean asked, looking urgently between the clothed angel beside him and the naked angel hugging his brother (and seriously, if this was an angel had the vessel known he'd be walking around like that when he said 'yes'?). "Are we in a fight?"  
  
"This is… their handshake," Castiel clarified.  
  
"I don't like it."  
  
"No one likes it," Castiel observed, before he turned back to the cupid, which had now released his grip on Sam and walked over to stand in front of them.  
  
"What can I do for you?" the cupid grinned, clearly unfazed by his nudity.  
  
"Why are you doing this?" Castiel said.  
  
"Doing what?"  
  
"Your targets; the ones you've marked," Castiel clarified. "They're slaughtering each other."  
  
"What?" the cupid said, grin faltering to be replaced by saddened confusion. "They are?"  
  
"Listen, birthday suit, we know, OK?" Dean affirmed, trying not to pay attention to the fact that an overweight guy was going all out in front of him and focus on the 'hope' that he'd start trying to kill them. "We know you've been flittin' around, popping people with your poison arrow, making them murder each other!"  
  
"What we don't know is why," Castiel finished.  
  
"You think that I-" the cupid began, tearing up as he sat down, muttering something about not knowing what to say that made Dean feel immediately uncomfortable about what they'd just said.  
  
He didn't often feel guilty about making people feel bad, but even if this guy was weird, seeing him sobbing like that made Dean feel a little like some creep who was picking on a kid who didn't get why he was putting people off…  
  
"Should… somebody maybe… go talk to him?" Sam asked at last.  
  
"Yeah, that's a good idea," Dean said, before turning to the man who might just be less uncomfortable with this mess. "Give 'em hell, Cas."  
  
"Um… look," Castiel said, looking awkwardly at the sobbing cupid. "We didn't mean to… hurt your feelings."  
  
"Love is more than a word to me, you know," the cupid said, spinning around to give Castiel a sudden hug. "I love love. I love it! And if that's wrong, I don't want to be right!"  
  
"Yes, yes, of course," Castiel said, awkwardly patting the cupid on the back. "I, uh… I have no idea what you're saying."  
  
"I was just on my appointed rounds," the cupid explained as he pulled back. "Whatever my targets do after that that's nothing to do with me; I- I was following my orders. Please brother. Read my mind. Read my mind, you'll see."  
  
"He's telling the truth," Castiel confirmed after staring the cupid in the eyes for a few moments.  
  
"Jiminy Christmas!" the cupid smiled. "Thank you!"  
  
"Wait, wait," Dean put in, unable to restrain his new curiosity at the implications of that last statement. "You said- you said you were just following orders? Whose orders?"  
  
"Whose?" the cupid laughed, initial despair forgotten (Dean had no idea if he should consider that a sign that this cupid was more human than most angels or just emotionally unstable). "Heaven, silly. Heaven."  
  
"Why does Heaven care if Harry meets Sally?"  
  
"Oh, mostly they don't," the cupid shrugged. "You know, certain bloodlines, certain destinies, like yours."  
  
"What?" Sam asked.  
  
"Yeah, the union of John and Mary Winchester," the cupid nodded. " _Very_ big deal upstairs, top priority arrangement."  
  
"Are you saying that you fixed up our parents?" Dean  
  
"Well, not _me_ , but yeah," the cupid waved his hands. "Well, it wasn't easy, either. Ooh, they couldn't stand each other at first. But when we were done with them? Perfect couple."  
  
"Perfect?" Dean repeated.  
  
"What about Dean and Bela?" Sam asked.  
  
"Oh, that's all on you," the cupid shrugged before Dean could protest that he didn't want to know the answer to that question. "That's what I like about love, really; I love it when my brethren and I can create something remarkable, but there's something just as appealing in letting it all happen under unconventional circumstances-"  
  
"Unconventional circumstances?" Dean repeated indignantly, storming indignantly up to the cupid. "Bela and I went to _Hell_ and Mom and Dad are _dead_!"  
  
"I'm sorry, but orders were very clear," the cupid said. "You and Sam needed to be born; your parents were just, uh… meant to be. A match made in heaven-"  
  
Dean cut off the cupid's attempt to start singing by punching him in the face, only for the cupid to vanish in response.  
  
"I believe you upset him," Castiel observed.  
  
"Upset him?" Dean protested. "The guy acted like you can just dick around with love, and that stuff about us _needing_ to be born-!"  
  
"He affirmed that no such influence was applied to yourself and Bela to ensure your own relationship," Castiel said.  
  
"That's not the point!" Dean yelled, refusing to admit that he was genuinely grateful for that news. "The point is that I've still got a kid on the way who could probably get stuck with my sick 'destiny' if we can't find a better way to stop this than letting Mike and Lucy wear us to the goddamn prom…"  
  
As Dean trailed off, shaking his head in exasperation, it was probably a good thing that Sam's phone rang at that point; the conversation was becoming increasingly awkward even before he admitted that he didn't know what he was going to say next.


	66. Facing Famine

_I wish Bela was here_.

Dean had no idea where that thought had come from as he studied the briefcase that Sam had just retrieved from their latest attacker. He missed Bela, but even if it was natural to miss the mother of your unborn child, he definitely shouldn't be wishing for her to there when he was facing something that could turn ordinary people into cannibals and may have made other people gorge themselves to death…

As he reached out a hand to carefully touch the briefcase, Dean wondered what it said about their lives that their hunts kept on becoming more complicated.

Granted, he was sure that they weren't the only people dealing with unusual hunts even before the Apocalypse, considering that their usual targets only had a few key 'rules', but ever since John Winchester had died, it felt like everything he thought he knew about the supernatural world had been turned on its head. He could accept that demons were coming out of the woodwork in response to the Apocalypse when they'd been far rarer before then, but vampires being suddenly so relatively common after John thought they were extinct, some of the pagan gods they'd been running into lately…

Even now, what was meant to have been a 'straightforward' case of a cupid going psycho had suddenly been proven wrong when the cupid was innocent and people had been found having gorged and drunk themselves to death, on top of the more extreme overdose cases he'd read about in the records. He still wasn't sure about Sam's explanation for how he'd identified that he was dealing with a demon when he saw the original owner of this briefcase, but his brother had no reason to lie about that so Dean wasn't going to press the issue.

"What the hell does a demon got to do with this, anyway?" he finally asked.

"Believe me, I got no idea," Sam sighed.

"You OK?" Dean looked anxiously at his brother, noting an anxious expression on his face.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll be all right," Sam replied, in a brisk tone that Dean recognised as Sam's 'Don't want to talk about it' manner.

"Let's crack her open," he said, deciding to focus on the briefcase. "What's the worst that could happen, right?"

As soon as they opened the briefcase, a strange white light appeared from its interior, the glow dazzling them both for a moment before it receded to simply 'residing' within the briefcase rather than filling the space between its two ends.

"Whoa!" Sam said, staring at the light in awe.

"What the hell was that?" Dean asked.

"It's a human soul," Castiel suddenly said, the two brothers turning around to see the angel standing behind them with a large bag in his hands, taking a bite out of a burger he must have removed from the bag. "It's starting to make sense."

"Now what about that makes sense?" Sam asked in exasperation.

"And when did you start eating?" Dean added.

"Exactly," Castiel nodded around a mouthful of food. "My hunger- it's a clue, actually."

"For what?" Dean asked, Sam repeating the same question beside him.

"This town is not suffering from some love-gone-wrong effect," Castiel explained. "It's suffering from hunger. Starvation, to be exact. Specifically… famine."

"Famine?" Sam repeated, to be met with a nod from Castiel. "As-as in the Horseman?"

"Great," Dean groaned, mind flashing back to how close they'd come to tearing each other apart during the confrontation with War. "Th-that's freaking great."

"I thought 'Famine' meant starvation, like as in, you know, food?"

"Yes, absolutely," Castiel nodded. "But not just food; I mean, everyone seems to be starving for something… sex, attention, drugs… love."

"Well, that explains the puppy-lovers that Cupid shot up," Dean observed.

"Right," Castiel affirmed. "The Cherub made them crave love… and then Famine came, and made them rabid for it."

"OK, but what about you?" Dean asked, walking back to stand in front of the angel. "I mean, since when do angels secretly hunger for White Castle?"

"It's my Vessel," Castiel said, turning away from the Winchesters with a solemn expression.

"Jimmy?" Dean asked, uncomfortable at the reminder that there was a relatively innocent man caught up in this conflict, even if he'd at least made a better-informed choice to let Cas use him this time around.

"Yes," Castiel affirmed. "His… appetite for red meat has been touched by Famine's effect."

"So Famine just rolls into town and everybody goes crazy?" Dean asked, wanting to focus on something apart from Jimmy Novak's status.

"'And then will come Famine riding on a black steed'," Castiel said, in a tone that made it clear he was quoting something. "'He will ride into the land of plenty, and great will be the Horseman's hunger, for he is hunger. His hunger will seep out and poison the air'."

"Cheery," Sam observed solemnly.

"Ah crap," Dean rolled his eyes in exasperation as a piece of the puzzle suddenly clicked in his brain. "So _that's_ what's been going down…"

"What?" Sam asked.

"I… I've been thinkin' about Bela a lot the last couple of days," Dean admitted awkwardly. "I mean, I thought that I was just feeling anxious about her because of… y'know, there's the kid to think about these days… but if Famine…"

"Right," Sam said, nodding grimly at his brother before he looked back at the angel, Dean feeling unbelievably grateful that his brother was leaving that issue alone. "So War enjoyed the chaos he caused when we found him; what does Famine get out of this?"

"Famine is hungry," Castiel explained. "He must devour the souls of his victims."

"So that's what's in the briefcase?" Dean asked, grateful for something to think about that wasn't the possibility of him trying to find Bela so that he could start chewing her skin off. "The twinkie dude's soul?"

"Lucifer has sent his demons to care for Famine, to feed him, make certain he'll be ready."

"Ready for what?" Sam asked.

"To march across the land," the angel said solemnly.

"Great…" Sam said, walking over to the room's bathroom to splash some cold water over his face.

"OK, so we've got Famine in this town; what next?" Dean asked. "Seriously, is this town just gonna eat, drink and screw itself to death?"

"We should stop it," Castiel observed as he sat on the room's sofa to continue eating.

"Yeah, that's a great idea," Dean said in exasperation. "How?"

"How did you stop the last Horseman you met?"

"War got his mojo from this ring," Dean said, suddenly uncomfortable at the memory of everything they'd been through during their last confrontation with a Horseman, particularly the rift it had temporarily created between him and Sam, even as he pulled the ring out of his jacket pocket. "And after we cut it off, he just tucked tail and ran. And everybody that was affected, it was like they woke up out of a dream. You think Famine's got a class ring, too?"

"I know he does," Castiel said.

"Well, OK," Dean said, choosing to focus on the matter at hand. "L-let's track him down and get to chopping."

"Yes," Castiel said, looking solemnly at the empty fast food bag.

"What are you, the Hamburglar?"

"I've developed a taste for ground beef."

"Well, have you even tried to stop it?"

"I'm an angel," Castiel responded even as he kept staring at the empty bag. "I can stop any time I want."

"Whatever," Dean said, shaking his head as he decided he wasn't ready to discuss unconventional addictions with his angelic ally. "Sam, let's roll."

"Dean…" Sam said, walking out of the bathroom to look at his brother, the tall man suddenly particularly unsteady on his feet. "I, um… I can't… I can't go."

"What do you- oh," Dean said, as the answer struck him. "If this thing got to me, it's got to you?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "I think I… I'm hungry for it…"

"It?" Dean asked, almost managing to resist the dark thought that had occurred to him even as the evidence began to fall into place. "Demon blood?"

Sam's lowered head said more than any words he could have uttered at this point.

"You got to be kidding me," Dean groaned, before turning to Castiel. "You got to get him out of here; you got to beam him to, like, Montana; anywhere but here."

"It won't work," Castiel said. "You are both infected; the hunger would just travel with you."

"And there's no guarantee I couldn't just find some other demon to drink wherever you dumped me," Sam observed with a bitter edge of self-resentment in his voice. "At least you _know_ what you're hungry for; if you can stay away from Bela until Famine's out of the picture, you should be OK."

"OK, so what do we do?" Dean said, making a mental note to leave his phone behind when he left the room; if he couldn't call Bela, he couldn't do anything too stupid.

"You go cut that bastard's finger off," Sam said, taking a deep breath to collect himself. "But before you go, you better… you better lock me down- but good."

Dean didn't respond to that request with words, instead just pulling a set of handcuffs out of one of his bags and moving Sam to the bathroom, chaining him by the wrist to the bathroom sink pipe.

"I get that it sucks, but this is the best we can do right now," he said, looking apologetically at his brother. "You just… hang in there; we'll be back as soon as we can."

"Be careful," Sam looked urgently between Dean and Castiel. "And… hurry."

* * *

As much as it sucked to have learned that Doctor Corman had drunk himself to death after twenty years sober, it at least gave Dean and Castiel a suitable target to use to track Famine. With the circumstances making it obvious that Famine's influence had been the reason for this man's death, all Dean and his angelic back-up had to do was wait outside in the Impala until someone came along with the same distinctive briefcase they'd 'stolen' earlier, and they were sorted.  
  
 _Of course_ , Dean mused as Castiel reappeared in the passenger seat with yet another burger in his hands, _I'd feel more comfortable if our best shot at doing this wasn't getting a major case of the munchies_ …  
  
"Are you serious?" he looked at the angel who'd just appeared in his car with another burger in his hands.  
  
"These make me… very happy," Castiel said, and Dean swore the angel looked like he'd put on weight as he slumped in the seat like that.  
  
"How many is that?"  
  
"I lost count," Castiel replied with what would have been nonchalance if his mouth wasn't full. "It's in the low hundreds."  
  
He paused in his eating to look warningly at Dean, managing to look serious despite the way he still tenderly cradled the burger. "But you should be cautious, Dean; just because what you crave is far from here does not mean your hunger cannot affect you."  
  
"I'll deal with that when I have to," Dean said, fighting down the urge to reach for his pocket; he _had_ left his phone behind, he knew it…  
  
When a man came out of the hospital carrying the distinctive briefcase, Dean was grateful to have something else to think about. Taking care to keep the Impala just far enough away that they kept their target in sight without being obvious to him in return, they eventually came to a stop outside a Biggerson's restaurant, which the briefcase-carrier entered despite the place clearly being shut.  
  
"Demons," Dean muttered, already uncomfortable with the situation as he looked at the still-chewing angel. "You want to go over the plan again? Hey, happy meal; the plan?"  
  
"I take the knife, I go in, I cut off the ring hand of Famine, and I meet you back here in the parking lot," Castiel said.  
  
"Well, that sounds foolproof," Dean said, settling into the driving seat as Castiel disappeared. He gave it a few moments, but when Castiel didn't pop back into the car after Dean had waited the necessary few moments it would take for someone to cut off a finger and get out, it was clear that things hadn't worked out as they'd hoped.  
  
 _God, I wish I'd brought the Colt… maybe I should call_ -  
  
Dean forced that thought down; Bela had agreed to take custody of the Colt to ensure that nobody else could tip Lucifer off that it was still in use, but he couldn't let her get involved in this when he couldn't know if he was going to eat her or they'd end up killing themselves.  
  
 _I can't endanger that kid_ …  
  
Dean didn't know how the kid was able to help him focus at a time like this, but it seemed to give him some kind of edge over the hunger that was gnawing at the edge of his brain, which was uncomfortable and felt weird but gave him something to focus on at the very least.  
  
Walking into the restaurant, Dean refused to curse when he saw Castiel on his hands and knees trying to devour raw hamburger meat from a tray on the floor; if Dean was having trouble focusing on anything other than Bela, the angel couldn't help himself when he was that focused. Dean was about to go for the demon-killing knife that he hoped Cas still had in his coat when he was suddenly grabbed from behind, knocking back a figure dressed in a dark suit that put Dean in the mind of the Men in Black before something else slammed him against a door. Before he could get his focus back, the two men in black grabbed his arms and led him back into the main restaurant, coming to a halt in front of the most withered-looking man Dean had ever seen, skin pulled back so tightly over his face that he almost looked like a skeleton despite his flesh, his thin black suit still hanging loose on his frame and tubes linked into his nose leading to a life-support system on the back of his motorised wheelchair.  
  
Looking at the thin figure sitting before him, trying not to think about the angel eating just behind him (Castiel was being attacked by a _Horseman of the Apocalypse_ ; it sucked, but the man had a good reason for being off the board right now), Dean wondered if this guy was just weak after so long being kept under wraps or if the whole point of being Famine was that he was constantly hungry.  
  
"The other Mr Winchester," Famine said, even his wheezing voice matching his weakened state.  
  
"Yeah, and you're Mr Appetite," Dean retorted, trying to keep his mind focused on the present crisis rather than let his thoughts drift to Bela. "This is your whole schtick? Making people cuckoo for cocoa puffs?"  
  
"Doesn't take much," Famine said, sickeningly non-chalant despite his pitiful state. "Hardly a push. Oh, America; all-you-can-eat, all the time. Consume, consume. A swarm of locusts in stretch pants. And yet, you're all still starving because hunger doesn't just come from the body, it also comes from the soul."  
  
"Even if it ain't physical hunger, huh?" Dean countered, fighting down the urge to blurt out Bela's name. "Too bad for you what I want isn't here."  
  
"And you think that matters?" Famine chuckled. "You already gave away that much; your own hunger is making you slip up, even if I have to admire that you're able to keep standing. Why is that?"  
  
"Because there's no way in _Hell_ I'm letting you win, you _ass_!"  
  
"Ah…" Famine said, holding out a hand to touch Dean's chest before withdrawing it with a thoughtful smile. "Fascinating… all that dark despair, that desire for the one you love, and despite it all, you're still holding on to that little bit of hope that you can be a better daddy for your little girl than you ever had yourself…"  
  
"I _can_ take you, you son of a bitch," Dean growled.  
  
"You can't win, you know that?" Famine chuckled. "All that smirking and joking, that cool determination to hold on for the daughter you met in a future you're trying to wipe out, and you still can't accept that you're screwed…"  
  
"Let him go," Sam's voice suddenly said, the Horseman turning around to face the new arrival. Taking in the sight of Sam standing by the door of the restaurant, Dean winced as he registered the red stain around his brother's mouth.  
  
On the one hand, the fact that Sam wasn't dead was good news, but on the other hand, they'd just gotten in trouble the last time they'd relied on demon blood power for anything…  
  
"Stop!" Famine yelled, as two of his demon guards moved to attack Sam. " _No one_ lays a finger on this sweet little boy. Sam, I see you got the snack I sent you."  
  
"You sent?" Sam repeated as the two demons stepped back.  
  
"Don't worry," Famine continued with a satisfied tone. "You're not like everyone else. You'll never die from drinking too much. You're… the exception that proves the rule. Just the way… Satan wanted you to be. So…" Famine lifted his hands to gesture at the demons guarding him. "Cut their throats. Have at them!"  
  
Dean liked to think he would have protested against this latest development a bit more under normal circumstances, but right now he was just straining to keep his mind focused on the situation at hand rather than drifting to think about Bela all over again…  
  
As Dean watched, Sam lifted his hand and closed his eyes, before all five demons suddenly poured out of their hosts, the smoke pooling on the floor and leaving Dean free as their meatsuits collapsed, before Sam lowered his hand.  
  
"No," Sam said finally.  
  
"Well… fine," Famine said, still sounding amused even after his offer had been rejected. "If you don't want them… then I'll have them."  
  
With that statement, the Horseman opened his mouth and a strange 'scream' filled the room, before the black smoke seemed to be drawn from the floor straight into Famine's mouth like he'd just become an extremely twisted-looking vacuum cleaner. In a matter of seconds, the floor was empty of the black smoke that had just filled the room, with Famine chuckling in satisfaction as Sam stepped forward, hand extended outwards once again.  
  
"I'm a Horseman, Sam," Famine said, even as Sam gritted his teeth. "Your 'power' doesn't work on me."  
  
"You're right," Sam said, as Dean glanced at the knife he'd just picked up. "But it will work on them."  
  
With that grim statement, Sam clenched his fist and smoke began to literally leak out of Famine's chest, the sickly figure throwing back his head with a strangled scream as Sam attacked his latest 'meal'. Dean thought he saw a trickle of blood leak from Sam's nose as his brother closed his eyes and clenched his fist, determined to push this assault for all it was worth, until the trickles of black smoke coalesced into a single state that practically tore themselves out of Famine like an explosion with no real sound or sense of heat.  
  
As the near-obsessive need to think about Bela fell to more tolerable levels, Dean glanced behind to see that Castiel was also back on his feet, the angel looking awkwardly between Dean and the tray of meat he'd been devouring earlier. Turning back to Famine, Dean nodded in grim approval at Sam as his brother drew in deep gasps of air, before he picked up the demon blade and walked over the slumped Horseman.  
  
The old, withered man in the wheelchair was so weak that he could barely let out a scream as Dean cut off the finger bearing Famine's ring, Dean fighting down the part of himself that felt bad doing this to what looked like an old man to focus on the knowledge that this had to be done. He thought for a moment about stabbing Famine in the chest for good measure, but even knowing what the man was, Dean didn't have it in him to do something like that when the man looked that pathetic; they'd left War reeling in agony on the ground after taking his ring, so it set a 'good' precedent for doing the same to Famine.  
  
He appreciated that they could have handled this mess a lot better, and Sam was going to have to spend a few days back in Bobby's panic room to help him detox from what he'd just gone through, but when all three of them had been directly attacked by a Horseman of the Apocalypse, Dean supposed they could have done a hell of a lot worse.  
  
 _Which isn't to say we couldn't have handled this a Hell of a lot better_ …  
  
How much longer would it be before they ran out of lucky breaks?


	67. Joshua's Advice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to 'jump' over a few episodes at this point; intervening events will be acknowledged, but right now we rejoin Bela and Deanna just after the events of 'Dark Side of the Moon', as Bela's condition progresses.

"Is this normal?"

"In your condition?" Deanna looked at Bela with a warm smile as the younger woman sat on the edge of the bed and stared at her stomach, her shirt pulled tightly across her belly. "Absolutely."

"Not the size, but the… well, it's the _weight_ of it," Bela said, awkwardly releasing her grip on her shirt even as she continued stroking her chest with one hand. "I mean, it's not uncomfortable, but I'm starting to feel like I've just been on a massive binge without having any of the fun."

"A binge is fun?"

"With the right food," Bela shrugged, staring around their current motel room with a thoughtful smile. "We're going to need to sort out suitable medical credentials for me soon; somehow I doubt we know any legitimate doctors capable of delivering a kid."

"The disadvantage of the hunting lifestyle, really," Deanna observed with a smile. "I mean, Bobby mentioned that he knows a man who started out as a dentist before he got into hunting after a fight with the Tooth Fairy-"

"The _Tooth Fairy_?" Bela repeated incredulously.

"I thought you'd learned to believe in anything in this line of work?"

"Some things just… seem too ridiculous," Bela responded, shrugging awkwardly before she looked back at Deanna. "Still, that proves my point; if the most medically qualified hunter we know of started out as a _dentist_ , we're going to need more than that when this one's ready to come out… any chance your husband's old contacts might help?"

"Most of them are probably out of date by now, but… well, it may be worth getting in touch with Bobby to see if he knows someone he hasn't mentioned yet," Deanna said, sighing as she sat on the other bed to stare at the wall. "The story about the dentist just came up during a chat, and I thought about asking for a doctor explicitly, but … well, everything that happened recently…"

"His wife," Bela nodded in understanding, recalling what Dean had told her about their last trip to Sioux Falls.

The concept of Lucifer using Death as a weapon like that wasn't that unexpected, considering that Lucifer had carried out that ritual in Carthage for the sole purpose of 'waking him up', but even Deanna had shuddered when Dean had told them about the reanimated dead of Sioux Falls slowly 'regressing' into more traditional zombies.

Bela was still troubled by the notion that her now-demonic father was out there somewhere, and constantly found herself praying to someone that he would never learn about his 'grandchild' (not that he deserved to even be considered a father, never mind a grandfather, even before he lost his original body), but the thought that she might have had to face her mother again, only to lose her when she became something that _twisted_ …

She could understand why Bobby had asked to be left alone for a while after he had attended his wife's cremation with the Winchesters. As much as she wanted to be there for the man who was becoming a tentative father figure to her as much as he was to Dean and Sam, he needed to deal with this pain in his own way.

"Something funny?"

"Just… amused at myself, really," Bela smiled over at Deanna. "Barely a couple of years ago I thought of Bobby Singer as a professional associate at best, and now…"

"You were really that distant?" Deanna looked at Bela with a curious smile. "When you actually _volunteered_ to help me adjust to this?"

"I told you I had other reasons-"

"It doesn't change the fact that you tried," Deanna said, her tone soft as she reached out to give Bela's shoulder a tender squeeze. "You could have tried just hunting on your own, or becoming a missionary, or any one of a dozen things that would have involved you working on your own with something that you felt would make you worthy, but you chose to commit yourself to working with a woman you'd only just met who was related to people who had no strong reason to think well of you at the time…"

"A bit of an understatement," Bela observed with a slight smile.

"But you've moved on from that," Deanna nodded at her. "Whatever your original reasons for trying to help me were, I like to think we're more than just business partners, even if you weren't basically my granddaughter-in-law-"

" _What_?"

"You haven't thought about it?" Deanna looked at Bela with an expression that was partly teasing and partly genuine curiosity.

"Well… I mean, keep in mind that my parents' marriages weren't exactly happy ones…" Bela shrugged awkwardly, fighting to ignore the warm feeling she had felt at just the implication that Dean might want to take things further than what they had now. "I know Dean would never do _that_ to me or Johanna, and I believe that he loves me, but it's just… when you only see the bad in a marriage…"

"I understand," Deanna nodded at the younger woman with a sympathetic smile. "And for what it's worth, Dean hasn't said anything to suggest he's thinking about that either, but if I know anything about my grandson… well, you're certainly someone he could think about having that kind of bond with."

Bela had no idea how to respond to that, so she focused on fighting back her initial tears at the show of support she'd literally never received from her father and stepmother (and never been in a situation that might require it when her actual mother was alive) and nodded at Deanna with a grateful smile.

Despite that, Bela was grateful when her phone rang; the caller might be the subject of their recent conversation, but at least it gave her a reason not to continue talking about a topic when she wasn't entirely sure how she should feel about it.

"Dean?" Bela raised her eyebrows in surprise as she saw the caller ID before accepting the call. "Dean, what's going-?"

" _Sam and I spent the last few hours in Heaven_."

" _Heaven_?" Bela repeated incredulously, acknowledging Deanna's anxious stare with a brief nod even if the older woman understood this wasn't the time to interrupt. "How- what did-?"

" _Couple of idiots decided best way to stop the Apocalypse was to kill Sam, and obviously they had to take me down in the process_ ," Dean explained, his tone lacking any trace of the elder Winchester's usual grim humour. " _Woke up reliving a fireworks display I put on for Sam when he was a kid, and then Cas dropped me a message that we'd gone to Heaven and should use the chance to talk to God about getting the guy to step in_."

"I… see," Bela said, already certain that this story wasn't going to have a happy ending and making a note to get to Dean as soon as she could once this conversation was over. "And… what happened? I mean, I thought Cas told us nobody knew where God was-"

" _Cas directed us to this guy Joshua, who's apparently the one angel in Heaven who's spent any time talking with their dad since he bailed out_ ," Dean explained. " _We had a close call or two with Zach, but we managed to find this Joshua guy_ …"

"And?"

" _And he said that God has apparently decided He's done enough already_."

" _WHAT_?" Bela yelled, unable to believe her ears as she stood up sharply from the bed, ignoring the slight jolt in her chest from the rapid motion even as she appreciated Deanna's anxious glance.

" _My reaction exactly_ ," Dean affirmed. " _I mean, Joshua did insist that_ he _was rooting for us and the Big G had his reasons for doing nothing more than what he's done so far, but that doesn't really help us right now_."

"So chalk up another deadbeat dad?" Bela asked, fighting not to just give into her despair at this new development even as Deanna looked anxiously at her. "Well, that sucks."

"Tell me about it," Dean said. " _I mean, I never even thought Cas was_ capable _of looking that depressed when we told him Joshua's answer_ …"

"Castiel was there?"

" _Showed up in our hotel room after Joshua sent us back, but I've got no idea when he actually got here_ ," Dean responded. " _He's off again, and Sam and I… well, with God off the table_ …"

"I know," Bela said, resisting the urge to bring up her own tentative plan; even if they had a chance for her to use that private scheme she'd been considering since Carthage, all she could do with it was put Lucifer down for a few moments, and that wouldn't do them any good if the devil was just going to 'wake up' afterwards fully aware of his apparent inability to sense her.

" _How're you doing_?"

"Fine," Bela said, smiling slightly as she stroked her stomach despite the grim nature of Dean's news. "We're still looking into getting a credible doctor to examine me later, but there's no reason to think there's a problem with her so far."

" _That's… that's good_ ," Dean responded before his tone became more solemn. " _I'm sorry I'm not there_ -"

"Deanna's doing fine," Bela cut him off. "We agreed that staying together isn't safe right now; we'll have time once we stop this."

" _You still think we will_?"

"You said that… Joshua was rooting for us?" Bela observed with a smile. "We have to believe that he wouldn't root for us if we didn't have any chance whatsoever."

" _Here's hoping_ …" Dean said, sighing at the other end of the line. " _Anyway, I'd better get going; Sam found something that suggests there's a bunch of demons active in a town nearby, and, well_ …"

"Anything that might give us an idea, right?" Bela smiled encouragingly. "Call if you need us."

" _See you at Bobby's_ ," Dean replied. " _Probably due a check-in anyway_."

It was only after she'd ended the call that Bela let out a scream of frustration.

Had it always been this hard to be a hunter, or were they genuinely fighting the inevitable?


	68. The Return of Adam Milligan

When Bela opened the door of her motel room to find Dean standing outside it, she knew that something was wrong even before she properly registered that Sam wasn't with him. She'd seen Dean go through a range of emotions since they'd first met, ranging from cold disdain to a warm affection that a part of her still couldn't bring herself to label as 'love', but she'd never seen him looking so dejected.

"Dean?" she looked uncertainly at him, even as she stepped aside to let him in. "What's wrong? If you're here to see Deanna-"

"I almost said 'yes'."

Bela's eyes widened incredulously, but she quickly took control of herself. It was easy to guess what Dean was referring to, but she'd spent too much time with him since they got out of Hell to believe that he'd even consider that as an option unless something serious had happened.

"Why?" she asked, leading Dean to the bed and letting him sit down. "What happened?"

"We found this town that knew about the Apocalypse and was being led by a woman who claimed that she was a prophet," Dean explained, his tone reflecting a greater sense of dejection than anything she'd seen from him before, looking at the wall opposite and gripping the bed as though he was fighting to keep himself upright. "She was exorcising a bunch of demons and passing rules that would basically keep everyone out of Hell, but then people were turning on each other to live up to these standards she was setting down… and then Cas showed up confirmed that she was actually the Whore of Babylon rather than a prophet."

"The Whore of Babylon?" Bela looked at Dean in surprise. "That's real?"

"Probably should start assuming that the only supernatural thing out there that _isn't_ real is unicorns," the eldest Winchester shrugged. "Anyway, the only thing that _could_ kill this Whore was a stake made from a cypress tree taken from Babylon, but it had to be wielded by a true servant of Heaven; Cas wasn't in any state to take on that kinda job, he said that Sam was out 'cause he's an abomination, and the local priest wasn't exactly qualified when the Whore was using his daughter's appearance, but when I had a chance to stab her… when it was the _only_ way I could be sure of saving anyone…"

"You were willing to go along with the plan?" Bela nodded, understanding falling into place.

"For a moment there, I was…" Dean paused for a moment, but finally shook his head with a clear expression of self-loathing. "I was willing to give Michael and those asshats everything they wanted from me if it meant I could deal with this mess and guarantee you'd both be safe…"

"Dean, you _can't_ give up-"

" _I know_!" Dean yelled back at her, before he lowered his head, body wracked with the kind of shame Bela would have expected to see from a devout priest who'd found himself admiring a young woman. "I know… I know that even if I gave them everything they wanted from me… I couldn't _hope_ to be sure that he'd go along with anything I asked… god, Michael pretty much admitted that they'd keep her on the board for some future fight but that doesn't mean she'd be _healthy_ … but when I had that stake…"

"You've always done what you had to do in order to save everyone," Bela said, placing a solemn hand on his shoulder. "You just did what you had to do in that moment; that doesn't mean you're going to give into Michael."

"But…" Dean sighed, before he reached up to clasp Bela's hand, looking at her with a wistful smile. "You know, I never had any illusions about what kinda life I was going to have, or how it was gonna end, but ever since I went to the future…"

"The one where our daughter was the only thing that was worth saving?"

"And it got me thinking," Dean said, as his wistful smile before more focused as he looked at her. "Whatever kind of future I have… whatever's gonna happen after this… if we _can_ have a future after this mess is dealt with… I want you both to be in it."

_A life with Dean Winchester…_

It would have once been a joke or a nightmare, whether because she couldn't imagine being happy with Dean or because she couldn't imagine letting herself have a family after what happened to her own, but in that moment everything seemed to fall into place in her mind.

"I want that too," Bela nodded at him with a tentative smile of her own, before that faltered as she looked at him more closely. "But… we still have to deal with Michael and Lucifer, right?"

"Yeah," Dean nodded at her before he fell back onto the bed to stare up at the ceiling. "This _really_ sucks."

"You're not-"

"I can't," Dean affirmed. "Don't get me wrong, right now the nuclear M option seems more and more like the last card we've got left to play, but when we've got so many people depending on me _not_ to say yes…"

"C'mon," Bela said, after a few moments had passed in silence, finally having thought of something she could say that wouldn't sound like an empty promise. "Let's wait for your grandmother to get back, and then we'll call Castiel in and get back to Bobby's to try a new brainstorming session."

"Sounds good to me," Dean nodded back at her.

* * *

"You really thought about givin' up?" Bobby looked grimly at Dean as the two men sat in the kitchen area of Bobby's house, the other four going over the library for anything they might have missed before now.  
  
"Just for a moment," Dean said, staring at his father figure with shame clear in his eyes, part of him wishing he hadn't given into Bela's argument to tell the paralysed old man about it all. "It was just… God, we've been tryin' to crack this for _months_ and letting Michael use me against the devil's still the only thing we have left…"  
  
In response, Bobby placed a gun on the table and took a bullet out of his pocket, putting it beside the gun.  
  
"That's the round that I mean to put through my skull," Bobby said in response to Dean's curious look. "Every morning, I look at it, and I think 'Maybe today's the day I flip the lights out'. But I don't do it. I _never_ do it. You know why? Because I promised _you_ I wouldn't give up!"  
  
Dean was saved from coming up with a response when a strange grunt came from the library.  
  
"Castiel?" Deanna's voice said, Dean and Bobby hurrying into the library to see the angel hunched over, clutching at his head as though he was suffering an intense migraine.  
  
"Are you OK?" Bela asked, looking up from the table where she'd been reading.  
  
"No," Castiel said, looking apprehensively between the assembled hunters. "Something's happening."  
  
"Where?" Dean asked, only for Castiel to disappear, wind throwing papers around the room as though thrown aside by the angel's beating wings.  
  
"OK," Sam said, exchanging glances with the rest of the group. "So… what now?"  
  
"We wait."  
  
"Wait?" Dean looked at Bela in surprise.  
  
"We can't exactly follow Cas without another angel's help, and then we've got no way of knowing what we'd find there even if he knew where he'd gone," Bela pointed out. "I don't like the idea of leaving him alone either, but it's not like we have a lot of options."  
  
"…Goddamn story of our lives right now," Dean said, sitting sullenly back in his chair. "Seriously, just for once, can't we let the world save itself?"  
  
"Unfortunately not," Deanna smiled awkwardly at her namesake before looking at Bela. "I don't suppose-"  
  
"At best what I have is half an idea that gets us away from Lucifer if we're cornered and only works once, so I'd rather not waste it unless we can get something better or we're out of ideas in a really tight spot," Bela cut her hunting partner off.  
  
"In other words, not a plan we can use with what we've got right now," Bobby nodded at her in grim understanding. " _Balls_ …"  
  
"I'm gonna get a beer," Dean said, standing up to head for the kitchen.  
  
"Feel free to-" Deanna began, before Castiel reappeared in the middle of the room, holding the body of a dirt-covered young man in his arms.  
  
"Help," the angel said, Deanna and Sam already removing the books from the table while Bela left her seat and Bobby wheeled away from behind the desk.  
  
"Who is it?" Dean asked the angel, before his eyes widened as he registered the earth-stained face of the new arrival now lying on the bed behind Bobby's desk. " _Adam_?"  
  
"Adam?" Deanna looked at Dean in surprise. "As in Adam Milligan? John's _other_ son?"  
  
"What the hell?" Dean's attention shifted from Adam to the angel.  
  
"Angels," Castiel replied, laying a pair of angelic blades on the table.  
  
"Angels?" Sam repeated. "Why?"  
  
"I only know that we need to hide him now," Castiel said, reaching out to place a hand on his chest in a manner that Bela recognised from when the angel had 'branded' her and the Winchesters with Enochian sigils. She was about to ask for their next move when Adam woke up, looking around himself in a panic.  
  
"Where am I?" Adam said.  
  
"It's OK," Sam said. "Just relax; you're safe."  
  
"Who the hell are you?"  
  
"You're going to find this a little… a lot crazy," Dean said, taking a moment to remind himself that they'd never met the 'original' Adam, "but we're actually your brothers."  
  
"It's the truth," Sam said. "John Winchester was our father, too. See, I'm Sam-"  
  
"Yeah, and I'm sure that's Dean," Adam cut him off, still anxiously panting as he looked at his elder siblings. "I know who you are."  
  
"How?" Bela asked.  
  
"The angels warned me about you," Adam said, barely seeming to acknowledge Bela before he looked around himself. "Now where the Hell is Zachariah?"  
  
"Zachariah," Bela sighed in exasperation. "Of _course_ he'd be part of this…"  
  
"Can you clarify what actually happened to you?" Deanna asked, moving forward to stand between Bela and Adam (Bela chose to interpret that as wanting to avoid her pregnancy becoming a factor in whatever talk they were about to have).  
  
"And… you are?" Adam asked as he looked at Deanna, as he moved to wipe some of the dirt off his face.  
  
"Their grandmother," Deanna clarified with a brief jerk of her head at the Winchesters. "Although not _your_ grandmother, I should clarify; I'm their mother's mother."  
  
"Ah," Adam said, looking at her for a moment before he sighed and nodded. "Well, I was dead and in Heaven… 'cept it, uh, it kinda looked like my prom, and I was making out with this girl, her name was Kirstin McGee-"  
  
"We get it," Sam cut Adam off, exchanging a glance with Dean that Bela wasn't sure how to interpret. "So what happened?"  
  
"Well, these… these angels," Adam continued, still brushing dirt off his clothes. "They popped out of nowhere, and they tell me that I-I'm chosen."  
  
"Let me guess," Bela looked grimly at the young man. "They told you that _you're_ going to help the archangel Michael kill the devil?"  
  
"Yeah," Adam looked at Bela in surprise. "How-?"  
  
"Because they've been telling _me_ that since Lucy got out of his box last year," Dean clarified, looking at Adam as though trying to work out if he should hit the kid or pity him for being an idiot.  
  
"You?" Adam looked at Dean in surprise. "But they said that I was his… sword, or vessel, or something-"  
  
"The Michael Sword is the title those haloed assholes came up with to refer to me being Mikey's vessel," Dean clarified, before he looked over at Castiel. "Could they be… I dunno, moving on from me?"  
  
"It is possible," the angel nodded. "If they were certain that you will not say 'yes' on your own accord, Adam may be a suitable substitute."  
  
"Really?" Bela looked at Castiel in surprise. "I thought part of this whole thing was focused on the idea that the relationship between the vessels reflected the dynamic with the archangels?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You said yourself Michael and Lucifer have each been talking to both of you as though they're… well, _you_ ," Bela observed as she gave the Winchesters a teasing smile before her expression became more firm. "And they think they can just stick Adam in Dean's place when he's never even _met_ Sam before now?"  
  
"It would not be a perfect switch, but it is possible," Castiel confirmed.  
  
"No way," Sam said resolutely. "After all this time, all this crap about destiny, _now_ the angels decide to try a plan B? Does that smell right to anybody?"  
  
"You know," Adam stood up, "this has been a _really_ moving family reunion, but if you could just show me to your bathroom, I've got a thing-"  
  
"You are _not_ going to hand yourself over to the angels just because Zachariah told you this…" Sam waved a hand, lost for an appropriate response, before he looked firmly at his younger brother. "Look, Adam, the angels are lying to you, OK? They're full of crap."  
  
"Yeah, I don't think so," Adam replied bluntly.  
  
"Let me guess; because they're _angels_?" Bela said, as she gave Adam a cool stare, cursing how every Winchester seemed to retain the same stubbornness once they were certain they were right about something. "I feel I should point out that Lucifer's an angel himself; you can't start assuming that something's good just because you _think_ it's good."  
  
"Did they even tell you that they're gonna roast half the planet?" Sam asked.  
  
"They said the fight might get pretty hairy," Adam acknowledged, "but it is the devil, right? So we got to stop him."  
  
"Which automatically means we have to go straight to the nuclear option?" Deanna observed bitterly. "Seriously, John Winchester was a smart man; why are you taking the stupid option?"  
  
"Stupid option?" Adam repeated, looking at Deanna with a cooler stare. "You… I don't even want to know _how_ you can be _their_ grandmother-"  
  
"It's a long story involving time travel that this _isn't_ the place for you to hear right now," Deanna cut him off. "What matters is that the angels have their own agenda beyond what they've told you, and that agenda isn't good for the rest of us; I know that you don't know any of us from a hole in the wall, but please, give us some time to explore the other options."  
  
"Give me one good reason," Adam countered.  
  
"…Because we're blood," Sam said.  
  
"You've got no right to say that to me," Adam said, his tone suddenly cold.  
  
"You're still John's boy," Bobby cut in.  
  
"No, John Winchester was some guy who took me to a baseball game once a year; I don't have a dad," Adam shot Bobby a cold glare before he turned back to Sam. "So we may be blood, but we are not family. My mom is my family. And if I do my job, I get to see her again. So no offense, but she's the one I give a rat's ass about, not you."  
  
"Hey, I get that Dad screwed it up, but he was trying to keep you safe-!" Dean protested.  
  
"We can… work that out later," Sam waved a hand at Dean before he looked back at Adam. "The point is, I get your point about how Dad wasn't really your _family_ in that sense, but I'd like you to keep in mind that the rest of us only weren't part of your life because we never knew about you before your death. John Winchester had his problems, but his priority was always to protect his family even if he had a crap way of showing it at times, so if you have even one good memory of him, you'll give us just a little more time. Please?"  
  
Adam's bitter stare didn't give Bela much hope that he was going to go along with that request for long, but at least it gave them something to work with.  
  
She just hoped she didn't have to try and 'use' Johanna to make a point to Adam; the last thing she wanted was to become the kind of person who'd use their child as some kind of bargaining chip to emotionally manipulate other people…


	69. The Rebellious Third

If it was always this hard to be an older brother dealing with a rebellious younger sibling, Sam suddenly had a new level of respect for how much Dean had put up with from him over the years. Adam had been allowed to go to the bathroom to clean himself up so he wasn't sitting around covered in dirt, but the way he kept looking at them made it clear that he wasn't exactly willing to play 'Happy Families' with his brothers any time soon, and Sam had no idea what he could say to make Adam understand the situation without it sounding forced at best.

 _Was I ever this bad_? Sam wondered. _I mean, I know I resented Dad telling me what to do all the time, but if he told me I was in danger I'm pretty sure I didn't openly defy him until I knew he'd dealt with whatever it was…_

Then again, how much of that was just his own perspective colouring his memories? He liked to think he'd found a better view on John Winchester as a father over the years, such as when he'd heard about what Jim Miller had done to Max in the same situation, but he and John had always had a very strained relationship, and things with Dean had gone up and down when they were basically finding their places in their family.

OK, Sam still wasn't sure if he'd define himself as _happy_ with how his life had turned out, but if he could get past the current Apocalypse situation, he thought he'd be in an OK place. His parental figures may include a crippled scrapyard owner and a grandmother who barely looked old enough to be his mother, but he was looking forward to becoming an uncle, and he liked to think he and Sarah were finding a way to make their long-distance thing work so long as she took the right precautions…

The sight of Adam getting up from the couch and cautiously sneaking towards a door pushed Sam out of his internal reflection; even if it was quiet right now, he couldn't forget the risk if Adam got out.

"Going somewhere?" he asked, stepping up before Adam could reach the door.

"Out for a… beer," Adam replied as he turned back.

"Great," Sam said, deciding to go with the obvious lie rather than get into another argument. "We got beer; have a seat."

"Great," Adam repeated, as he walked back into the study. "You know, you pitched this whole dewy-eyed bromance thing, but the truth is, I'm on lockdown, aren't I?"

"Adam," Sam said solemnly as he put the beer down on the table in front of Adam, "you may not believe it, but Dad was trying to protect you by keeping you from all of this."

"Yeah, well, I guess the monster that ate me didn't get that memo."

"You remember that?" Sam asked, lost for a better way to respond to that news.

"Oh yeah," Adam began sarcastically. "If that's him trying to _protect_ me-!"

"John might not have succeeded, but you deserve to give him credit for _trying_ to keep you away from some of the things he hunted," Deanna cut in, glaring at Adam as she walked into the room. "I'm not saying that his way of doing things was the right way, but don't act like we all knew about you and left you to die anyway."

"Gran's right, Adam," Sam said, looking earnestly at his younger brother. "If Dean and I had known about you-"

"What?" Adam said bitterly. "You'd really have-"

"They would," Deanna cut in, looking coolly at him. "These two welcomed me into the family they've made here even when they had never had a single true grandparent in their lives before I came back and had every reason to reject me because I was far from the right age to be a grandmother. I will concede that they're bad at showing it at times, but _never_ doubt that family is important to them."

It was the blunt way she said it that stopped Sam making his initially planned comment about how the only thing worse than seeing John Winchester once a year was seeing him the whole year. John Winchester had been a difficult father, but whatever Sam felt about him, he had already conceded that John could have handled things much worse after Mary's death than he did, considering the examples set by Max Miller's father in particular; Adam wouldn't have had even that much growing up, considering that he would have only had a working mother as his only family.

"She's right," he conceded, looking at Adam as he hoped he was properly conveying his sympathy. "We can't change the past, but from here on out-"

"What?" Adam cut him off. "We gonna hop in the family truckster? Pop on down to Wally World?"

"Well," Deanna observed with a tentative smile when Sam just looked at Adam in silence, "at least that level of snark affirms you're a Winchester."

"Right…" Adam said, looking at Deanna as though he wasn't sure if he should consider that a compliment or an insult.

It wasn't full acceptance, but Adam at least didn't give the impression that he was going to try and leave the house any more, so Sam would consider this a win for the moment.

* * *

"You realise," Bela looked coolly at Dean as they sat in one of Bobby's spare bedrooms, "that just because we can't let him act as Michael's vessel doesn't mean that _you_ get to do it either?"  
  
"Yeah, I get that, but right now we've just got a _mess_ of problems and we're not gonna deal with any of them if we keep this up," Dean observed, his arms folded as he stared out of the window in frustration. "We've lost Mom, Dad, Jess, Ash… Hell, if it wasn't for Cas we'd have lost Jo and Ellen in the middle of an attack that didn't even _work_ , and we're still no closer to finding some way to put that bastard down!"  
  
"We're holding our own," Bela observed.  
  
"And I'm not gonna ignore that, but how long can our luck hold out? I believe in us, and we've done more than I coulda expected when this all started, but we've still got no real _plan_ right now…"  
  
"We have something the other side don't have," Bela said, smiling slightly as she reached out to place Dean's hand on her stomach. "The demons and the angels are all just doing it because they have an abstract idea about what they'll get afterwards, and even if they win they may not get what they want; we have something specific that we actually _want_ to fight for."  
  
Looking back at Bela, Dean's eyes flickered down to her stomach, before he gave her a warm smile.  
  
"Y'know, I still can't get over how bizarre this all is?" he smiled. "This time a couple of years ago, I wanted you dead for bein' a bitch and you acted like I was barely a Neanderthal who wanted to rip everything apart, and now…"  
  
Dean fell into silence as he placed a hand on Bela's stomach, the skin becoming tight under her shirt even if the pregnancy still wasn't obvious.  
  
"I think we can both agree we didn't make a good impression on each other at first," Bela smiled at him in return as she placed a hand over the one on her chest. "Funny how things change."  
  
"Good to have something else to fight for, anyway," Dean observed, as he rubbed his hand over Bela's stomach, enjoying the firmer feel of it as a sign of what was growing inside her. "Hell, you even gave Sam something else to fight for."  
  
"You _are_ talking about me putting him back in touch with Sarah, right?" Bela asked with a brief smile.  
  
"Not saying the niece didn't help, but that's good too," Dean nodded, even as he gave her stomach an affectionate pat. "Guy's still got issues, and they haven't had that much time together, but Sarah… she's been good for him."  
  
His expression became grimmer. "Then those damn angels have to bring Adam into the picture and throw it all out of whack…"  
  
"We still have options," Bela said firmly. "I said it before, and I'll say it again; you don't get to give me hope if you're going to give up on our chances yourself. Is that _clear_ , young man?"  
  
"Crystal, ma'am," Dean replied before he broke out into a wider smile. "You're… God, you're perfect, you know that?"  
  
"I try," Bela conceded with a wry grin, before she reached out and took his hand. "Come on, let's get some rest; we can work out our next move tomorrow."

* * *

"He _got out_?" Sam looked at Bobby in exasperation. "How did that happen?"  
  
"Firstly, in case you hadn't noticed, he had a slight height advantage, so I'd have been a bit stuck for options short o' cuffin' him to the chair," Bobby said bitterly. "Secondly, kid just vanished in his sleep; what am I meant to do 'bout that?"  
  
"Zachariah," Castiel put in.  
  
"I thought you warded Adam against angels?" Bela looked pointedly at their angelic ally.  
  
"I warded him against physical discovery; if he was psychologically receptive to their message, it would still be feasible for him to be contacted by them," Castiel observed. "Why do you think Anna was able to find you when she made her offer of assistance? Lucifer has a connection to Sam due to Sam's status as his vessel, but Michael lacks the experience of operating on a human level to reach Dean in the same manner while he is confined to Heaven, and you and Deanna resist all communication from angels in any case."  
  
"OK," Dean nodded in understanding. "So… if we assume that Zach's got Adam, where do we find him?"  
  
"He will be in the room."  
  
"The room?" Dean repeated, before his eyes widened in understanding. "You mean that weird place they kept me when they were waiting for Luci to get out of his box?"  
  
"Precisely," Castiel nodded. "It will be guarded from the outside, and warded to prevent me simply travelling to its interior, but if we wish to save Adam, we will have to confront them."  
  
"So we have a few mook angels between us and Adam?"  
  
"And likely Zachariah himself," Castiel added.  
  
"Really?" Deanna looked at him in surprise. "Zachariah's spent this long trying to capture Dean and Sam and he'd still be in charge of anything?"  
  
"As you have all observed, angels are… not prone to change," the angel in the trenchcoat responded, actually appearing annoyed at that observation. "Michael will doubtless be disappointed that Zachariah has not secured Dean for a vessel by this time, but he will not bother appointing another to take Zachariah's place if he does not have to."  
  
"And he'd probably take his time about it even if we killed the bastard," Deanna put in.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, we're dealing with a bunch o' powerhouses who don't get the first thing about actually improvisin'," Bobby shook his head grimly. "Point is, even if we know where they are, what are we gonna do 'bout getting' Adam out?"


	70. Assault on Zachariah

Sitting at a table in an amazingly ornate room, with burgers basically piled on the table in front of him while a mass of beers lay just beyond that, Adam wondered what the Winchesters had been complaining about.

Granted, the idea of facing the Devil was a bit of an intimidating one, but it wasn't like Michael was going to force him to have to do any of the fighting himself; he'd just give the archangel control for a few hours, and then he could go back to having a peaceful life with his mother…

"I see you and your brother share the same refined palate."

"Ah," Adam looked apologetically up at Zachariah, putting down the burger as the old-looking angel sat on the edge of the table and looked at him in an appraising manner. "So, uh… we ready?"

"For what?"

"What do you mean, for what?" Adam responded, wondering if this was some weird angel joke. "For Michael."

"Oh, right," Zachariah nodded. "About that… Look, this is never easy, but I'm afraid…we've had to terminate your position at this time."

"Excuse me?" Adam looked incredulously at the angel.

"Hey, don't get me wrong," Zachariah said dismissively. "You've been a hell of a sport, really. Good stuff. But the thing is, you're not so much the 'chosen one' as you are… a clammy scrap of bait."

"What?" Adam said, almost unable to believe that he was hearing this; the family he'd spent the last few hours refusing to listen to had been telling the _truth_? "So all that stuff about me being needed to fight the devil-"

"All crap," Zachariah shrugged. "I mean, don't get me wrong, you _are_ the illegitimate half-brother of the guy we do care about; that's something, right?"

"And all that stuff about Sam and Dean being co-dependent and putting themselves above everything?"

"Oh, that's true," Zachariah conceded. "It's just that they put _family_ above everything else, even the divine plan for the creation of paradise and the end of the demons. Net result is that pretty much anyone who shares blood with them, or anyone they _really_ trust, would merit the kind of attention we need to get them off guard while they're trying to find a way to save everyone else, and you were the only person who meant that much to them they weren't watching like hawks already."

"So you lied," Adam glared at Zachariah, wishing he could kick himself as he realised just how big an idiot he'd been.

 _I mean, OK, you pretty much expect to trust angels, but the idea that they'd lie like_ this…

"We didn't lie," Zachariah corrected. "We just… omitted certain truths to manipulate you."

"You son of a bitch," Adam glared at him, aware that at least some of the anger he felt right now was only being directed at Zachariah because he couldn't kick himself about it right now.

"Hey, how do you think _I_ feel?" Zachariah said, grinning as though this was all some big joke Adam just wasn't seeing the funny side of. "I'm the one that's got to put up with that dumb, slack-jawed look on your face. Kid, we didn't have a choice. The Winchesters got _one_ blind spot, and it's family. See, Sam and Dean, they're gonna drop everything to try and get you, which is gonna put Dean where we need him, right where I need him. This is the night, kid! _Our_ night. Michael's seen it. The tumblers finally click into place, and it's all because of you. And me. But who's keeping score?"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna let you do this," Adam countered.

"Cool your jets, corky," Zachariah said with a mocking smile. "Sit down. We're doing it together. Plus, you still get your severance. You get to see your mom, OK?"

"Why should I believe you?" Adam asked.

"You know what?" Zachariah said, raising his hand in a mock talking gesture. "I keep hearing this, but what I want to be hearing is this."

The angel closed his hand, and suddenly Adam was bent over the table, spitting up blood with an ache in his guts that he'd never felt before.

"That's better," the angel said, shrugging and settling back against the table. "So now we just wait for the brothers Winchester to show up, and then this game can _really_ get on the road…"

* * *

Even as he opened the door to the small shack that led to this strange room, Dean tried not to think too much about what had just happened outside.  
  
Castiel might be running low on angel juice, but the guy was a lot tougher than even he knew, to have stood up to Heaven after probably a whole existence of towing the line. Cas might have carved an angel-banishing sigil on his own chest that was powerful enough to take out four angels, but Dean wouldn't accept that Cas was dead until he found some way to be sure what had happened to the guy.  
  
 _I just hope they're not putting_ too _much faith in me_ …  
  
When he saw Adam lying on the floor against the wall opposite the door, in that familiar room decorated with ornate paintings and museum-like artwork around a long table, he abandoned his concerns for his angelic ally to focus on the person he could actually help right now.  
  
"Adam?" he said, anxiously moving to crouch down beside his reborn half-brother as the boy lay slumped against the wall at the other end of the room. "Hey, hey; you OK?"  
  
"You… you came for me?" Adam looked up at him in surprise.  
  
"Yeah, well, you're family," Dean said, trying not to think about the blood under his mouth as he helped Adam place an arm over his shoulder.  
  
"Dean, it's a trap…" Adam gasped.  
  
"I figured," Dean said, unsurprised to see Zacahariah now standing between them and the door.  
  
"Dean, please," the older-looking angel said with that same annoyingly smug grin. "Did you really think it would be that easy?"  
  
"Did _you_?" Dean couldn't stop himself replying as Sam charged at Zachariah from behind. The angel turned around in time to knock Sam to the side with a sweep of his hand, but he failed to turn his attention back to the still-open door in time to completely evade Deanna's assault, as the angel blade she'd retrieved from the angel Castiel had killed earlier was plunged into Zachariah's left side.  
  
" _Damnit_!" Zachariah yelled as he fell to his knees, clutching at his wounded shoulder even as he tossed the Winchester's temporally displaced grandmother into another wall with a sweep of his arm. "You really think-"  
  
"Like we just said," Dean cut Zachariah off, moving forward to hold his own angel blade to the angel's throat, "did you really think we'd come in here without a plan?"  
  
"It came to mind," Zachariah retorted, glaring contemptuously at Dean despite the glowing wound where the other sword was sticking out of him. "I mean, I'll admit that I was facing downsizing at least, but then the boss man had this latest plan…"  
  
"And you thought that you'd get to me with Adam?" Dean glared at the angel.  
  
"You don't exactly have a choice-"  
  
"Says the man on his knees in front of my grandsons," Deanna added, getting back to her feet as she raised her angel blade in a threatening manner. "If you think you're getting out of this-"  
  
"Oh, I am," Zachariah said, getting back to his feet and looking up at the ceiling, before he roared out commands in what the three hunters recognised as Enochian. The room around them began to shake in a worrying manner as the corners of the ceiling began to glow, but Zachariah just looked at the four humans with an expression that would have been nonchalance if he hadn't still been wincing at the agony in his arm. "Because the boss won't let anything happen to me."  
  
"You honestly buy that?" Dean retorted, flipping the blade in his hands as he fixed the wounded angel with a cold glare, ignoring the growing trembling around him as he focused his gaze on Zachariah. "Last I checked, Michael needs me to consent before he can trigger his own Apocalypse, but I've heard nothing to suggest he needs you; you really think that he won't blast you back to your basic atoms if I tell him I'll only agree to be his vessel once you've been disintegrated?"  
  
"He _wouldn't_ -!"  
  
"Do you really believe what you're saying?" Sam observed, a mocking grin on his face as he looked at Zachariah. "You just broke _your_ word to Adam; it's not that much of a stretch to believe Michael would go against you if it meant getting what he wants."  
  
"And you literally just told us that you were worried about getting downsized because you haven't been doing a particularly good job recently; why would Michael even _want_ to keep you round with your recent track record?" Deanna put in with a smirk.  
  
"You listen to me," Zachariah growled, ignoring his bleeding arm as he stood up straight to glare at Dean in particular. "You're all nothing but maggots who got stuck in the assholes of worms; when I deliver you to Michael-"  
  
"You're expendable."  
  
"Michael would _never_ kill me!"  
  
"But I will," Dean said, ramming his angel blade into Zachariah's jaw with such force that the top of the blade came out of the top of the man's head. Zachariah screamed in agony as his eyes and mouth blazed with the familiar bright light of a dying angel, but it ended in moments, leaving Zachariah lying on the ground in the familiar manner of a dead angel, eyes burnt out of their sockets and the ash imprint of his wings around him.  
  
"Let's go!" Deanna said, glancing around as her two grandsons and one step-grandson got to their feet, the room around them shaking as a strange sound filled their ears.  
  
"Even-?" Adam began, leaning against the table as though still trying to regain his strength.  
  
"Look," Deanna cut Adam off with a frustrated glare as she opened the door of the room, "you might have screwed up by going along with the angels in the first place, but whether or not you're my biological grandson, you're still family, and none of us ever give up on family."  
  
"Really?" Adam looked at her uncertainly. "Even after…?"  
  
"We all make mistakes," Sam observed as he joined Deanna at the door. "That doesn't mean we'd just abandon you for them."  
  
"Uh… thanks," Adam said, looking over at Dean as the eldest Winchester joined them at the door. "So… where's Bela in this?"  
  
"She stayed behind," Dean shrugged. "C'mon, you really think I'm going to bring a pregnant woman into a fight with a bunch of angels?"  
  
" _Pregnant_?" Adam looked sharply at Dean. "Bela's _pregnant_?"  
  
"Uh… yeah?" Dean nodded at Adam, suddenly unsure how the kid would react to that particular twist.  
  
"And… it's yours?"  
  
"Yeah, but let's-" Dean began, before Adam ran forward, shoving all three of them out of the door and slamming it in front of them before any of the hunters could react.  
  
"What the- _Adam_!" Dean protested, angrily hitting the door with one hand (and he wasn't going to focus on the fact that a _civilian_ had just beaten him). "Get out of there!"  
  
"I can't."  
  
"What-?"  
  
"You came here for me," Adam replied, his tone solemn even over the screech of the descending archangel on the other side. "Maybe I can get my mom back, maybe I can't… but if I can do this for you guys, maybe you'll get to be there for _your_ kid."  
  
"Adam, you don't have to-!" Dean began, before the door's outline was suddenly illuminated by a brilliant white light that vanished after a few moments. Forcing his anxiety down, Dean opened the door, but only found the contents of an office that had clearly been abandoned years ago, with broken cabinets at the back and the pointless interior windows broken.  
  
" _Shit_!" Dean slammed his hands against the wall in exasperation. "We lost him…"  
  
"And Cas," Sam observed, looking back at the dead body of the only angel Cas had killed before he'd triggered his last resort. "This has _not_ been a good day."  
  
"But on the bright side, we ganked Zachariah," Dean observed, looking at them with the kind of grim smile Sam and Deanna recognised as his own desperate attempt to find a positive in a bad situation. "And we're still standing, which means we still got a shot at stopping this apocalypse so long as Luci decides he still wants option number one even if Mike's prepared to take the second choice."  
  
"Not the greatest odds," Deanna responded, even as she gave him a brief smile of encouragement.  
  
"Longer than the odds of you and Bela being here in the first place?" Dean asked his grandmother.  
  
"And definitely _not_ longer than the odds of you two having a kid together under these circumstances," Sam put in.  
  
"Fair point."  
  
"So _screw_ destiny," Dean nodded. "We've still got a shot at this, and we're going to take the fight to these asshats and stop the Apocalypse our way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Hammer of the Gods' is coming up, but first, a little 'interlude' that brings back a certain villain with grand ideas…


	71. Parental Reunions and Farewells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here is what may be my most daring bit of writing ever; I hope this goes down well…
> 
> In advance, today's 'special guest' can be envisioned as being portrayed by Sasha Alexander, preferably in the clothing style she wore when portraying Maura Isles in _Rizzoli & Isles_ (with the necessary adjustments for her time period of origin); you'll know who I'm talking about when you get there.

Bela liked to think that she had grown as a person since she got out of Hell, but it still surprised her just how far she'd come in the last few months. She went into Hell with nothing but money, but in the months since then, she'd found a strange new form of family with a group she'd previously dismissed as just being a few steps away from serial killers, admiring people she would have once seen as foolish…

She appreciated that they were still in danger from Lucifer's forces, particularly with Dean's ominous warnings of that future he'd told them about to take into account, but right now Bela chose to hope for the best. Dean, Sam and Deanna should be back with Adam before the day was out, they would have taken another piece off the board in Heaven and Hell's attempts to get the Apocalypse back on track, and in the meantime Bobby had given her a new credit card so that she could do a quick supply run (she normally preferred using her own cards, but this close to Bobby's house anything to discourage attention to him wasn't a bad move).

With the food in shopping bags, Bela was just on her way back to the car when she found herself pausing outside a toy store, looking at the display items in the window with a thoughtful smile. She appreciated that it would be a while before she could get her child anything big, and she somehow doubted that her daughter would ever even be allowed to be interested in conventional girls' toys like Barbies or those 'My Little Pony' things, but that didn't rule out the possibility of a stuffed animal of some kind…

Glancing around, Bela's gaze narrowed when she saw a couple of people walking towards her, an edge to their pacing approach that she didn't like. Adjusting her grip on the bags, she turned around to hurry towards her current car, but froze when she felt something sharp dig into her side from the back.

"Move and the blade goes in," an unfamiliar voice said from behind her, with an all-too-familiar edge to the speaker. "I may not want to kill you, but that doesn't mean I can't do a bit of harm."

" _You_ ," Bela said, tightening her grip on the bags as she tried to consider her options.

"I don't even merit a 'Dad'?" the man said, his eyes flashing the traditional demonic black.

"The only reason I mourned what happened to you last time was because we had to kill your last host, and I only hope you felt at least _some_ of what he went through when that happened," Bela countered firmly; she'd picked up a few beers out of habit, considering that the men she knew tended to go through alcohol like it was water these days, but were they heavy enough to disorientate a demon…?

"Well, it smarted, certainly, but we have bigger things to discuss right now," the demon grinned. "If you wouldn't mind-?"

Bela tried to swing the bag of beers at his head, but the demon that had once been her father easily grabbed her arm, and then moved to place his other hand on her forehead-

* * *

" _Bastard_!" Bela yelled as she sharply sat up, looking urgently around herself. As she expected, she was no longer on the street she'd been just a moment ago from her perspective, but was now in a stained and dirty room that reminded Bela of the place where Dean and Sam had been squatting when they were dealing with that ghost ship and the Hand of Glory, save for it having more modern furniture even if it was still obviously dirty.  
  
"And you're awake," the demon grinned at Bela, sitting nonchalantly in a chair opposite her. Glancing down, Bela noticed that she'd been lying on a bed and was still wearing the same clothes she'd been in earlier, even if it was clear that her phone had been taken out of her pocket.  
  
"What the _Hell_ are you doing?" Bela protested, looking down to realise that her legs and hands were tied to the bedposts with stiff but secure ropes. She could move her arms just enough, but she doubted that this rope was loose enough to let her untie herself without being caught before she could escape.  
  
"A man can't have a reason to see his daughter and his grandchild?"  
  
"You'd have no right to use those titles even if you weren't in someone else's body, and you honestly expect me to believe you'd do this if you weren't after something?" Bela said, refusing to voice the thought that her former father could have easily killed her baby if he wanted Johanna to be gone (she found it strange, but she agreed with Dean that the name at least sounded good); the last thing she wanted was to draw his attention to her pregnancy.  
  
"Well, I'll confess that you're right there, even if it pains me to see you so suspicious," the demon replied with a mocking grin. "But just to start, I'll clarify that I brought you here based on a few tips we got from our allies on the other side."  
  
"The other side?" Bela repeated inquiringly, forcing herself to keep calm until she knew more.  
  
"Well, do you honestly think that 'Uriel' fellow was the only angel up there who liked the idea of bringing Lucifer back?"  
  
"Uriel- oh, you've got to be kidding me," Bela rolled her eyes incredulously to try and hide her deeper fears at that revelation. "Someone else up there thinks working with Lucifer is a _good idea_?"  
  
"Oh, not to the extent that he's willing to completely flip on his heavenly masters to help us, but he's invested enough to want to ensure that the Apocalypse can happen on schedule even if the chosen vessels won't play ball," the demon explained. "Since your dear new paramour and his brother have expressed continued reluctance to accept their parts, after we were alerted to the possibility that there was a substitute vessel for Michael who was still in the appropriate bloodline, it got me thinking… well, dear Adam isn't the only other member of the Winchester family out there."  
  
"Excuse me?" Bela looked at her father in confusion. "You captured _me_ , not Deanna-"  
  
"Who is a Campbell," her father corrected with one raised finger that he subsequently pointed to her chest. "I'm talking about the Winchester in _there_."  
  
Bela's eyes widened incredulously, before she fully processed the implications of this latest proclamation.  
  
"You- are you _kidding me_?" she yelled in outrage. "You honestly think that you can use my _baby_ as a vessel for Lucifer? She hasn't even been _born_ yet-!"  
  
"Oh, I'm not saying we're going to wait until you've given birth," her father shrugged. "But while you're sharing blood with that little girl for the next few months, it's not impossible that you could serve as a suitable substitute yourself…"  
  
Bela had already been afraid for her daughter, but the implication of those words sent an icy chill through her veins.  
  
She had no idea if it would even be possible, considering some of the rules required for angelic consent that Castiel had told them about, but the thought of what they could do to her and her baby if they had the time…  
  
"You can't," she said. "I can't give consent on behalf of my baby-"  
  
"It's part of you for the moment; it creates… possibilities, shall we say?"  
  
"If you seriously think-!"  
  
A sharp slap to her face interrupted Bela mid-sentence, even as she quickly shot a cold glare at her father.  
  
"And once again, you prove why you were a bad father," she said, forcing herself to appear cool despite the risks facing her. "You just want to make the world work your way, and you don't care that nobody else shares your views."  
  
"Is it a crime to want to make it clear that I care for my daughter?"  
  
Bela shot her father a cold glare, refusing to bother giving him a verbal response; she doubted that he would have been able to understand her answer even if he wasn't a demon, so she wasn't going to bother trying to give him one.  
  
"You know, I'm not sure exactly how dangerous sex is to pregnant women, but considering the way I prefer it, I concede it's probably not a good idea to risk Lucifer's potential back-up vessel," her father said, before he reached up and tore open her shirt. Bela screamed despite herself, trying to cover up her exposed chest despite her tied arms, but her father just drew out a switchblade and scratched it over the anti-possession tattoo.  
  
"That said," he grinned at her, "I can use this opportunity to be within you _another_ way…"  
  
Bela barely had time to realise what he was talking about before smoke burst from his mouth and headed for hers-

* * *

" _Hello, Abigail."_  
  
 _Bela had no idea where she was as her eyes opened and she found herself seemingly surrounded by white smoke, limbs unrestrained and wearing an unfamiliar white dress. However, that brief confusion was immediately replaced by shock when she realised who had just said her original name._  
  
" _M… Mom?" she whispered, staring incredulously at the woman in front of her._  
  
 _It had been almost two decades since she'd last seen this woman, that dark night when her mother's attempt to take her away had been… interrupted… but everything about her memory seemed to have been perfectly preserved; the strawberry-blonde hair, the well-tailored suit, the friendly smile…_  
  
 _All thought of composure was lost when Bela felt that hand on her face, the hand that had never struck her… the hand that had only ever showed her love and kindness…_  
  
" _Mommy…" she whispered, the word of endearment she'd lost on that dark day as she wrapped her arms around the other woman and felt the comforting embrace she'd lost so long ago._  
  
 _Deanna had done her best without Bela ever asking for anything- God, Bela hadn't even_ realised _she was looking for anything like that when she brought Deanna back to the present- but there was no substitute for this moment, surrounded by the reassuring, comforting arms of the one authority figure from her childhood who'd never hurt her, never disbelieved her, never acted like_ she _was the problem…_  
  
" _Is this… real?" she asked, stepping back to look in confusion at her mother._  
  
" _It's… think of it as a waypoint," her mother smiled. "You're not dead, obviously, but considering that you're being possessed by a demon when you're tainted by the protective essence of the angel who dragged you out of Hell, it puts you in an interesting spiritual place in this kind of situation."_  
  
" _Just because… I'm being possessed?" Bela looked at her mother in surprise. "You're sure I'm not-?"_  
  
" _It's not your time yet, Abigail," her mother smiled at her. "You still have so many things to do, beyond your unconventional status-"_  
  
" _My… you know about me being a Seal?" Bela looked at her in surprise._  
  
" _It's not well-known on either side, but I'm in touch with the right circles," her mother shrugged. "If nothing else, there's a fellow up here named 'Ash' who likes keeping me and others informed about your activities."_  
  
" _Ash?" Bela repeated in surprise before her memory caught up with her. "Wait… Dean told me about-"_  
  
" _Yes, he lived at the Roadhouse with the Harvelles before… well, he ended up here," her mother nodded. "Obviously we never met in life, but after you and Dean hit it off… well, he got curious enough to look around for some of_ your _contacts, and he found me."_  
  
" _I… see," Bela said, looking at her mother in silence for a moment before she swallowed in resolution._  
  
However this happened, this might be my only chance…  
  
" _Why?"_  
  
" _Why what?"_  
  
" _Why did you stay with him?"_  
  
" _Your father?" her mother said, smiling sadly at Bela. "He… was troubled, Abby-"_  
  
"' _Troubled'?" Bela repeated with a pointed stare._  
  
" _You have to remember that we grew up in a different era from anything you've experienced, Abby," her mother continued, her manner calm. "You've been part of a supernatural war for a long time, but both your grandfathers came back from the Second World War damaged in some way, and society as a whole was reeling from everything it had been through; your father and I actually met taking our own fathers to their unit's twenty-year reunion."_  
  
" _They… lost their legs, right?" Bela asked, a vague memory of old family photos stirring in her mind._  
  
" _And your dad's father lost an arm in an accident at the factory after the war was over," her mother confirmed with a sad smile. "Your father had to take on additional responsibilities at home to help support the family after his own father lost his job- disability pension obviously didn't amount to much when he had your father and aunts to provide for- but it was still difficult. Nobody in that family had the time or ability to show affection for each other when every day was a struggle to ensure they'd have enough money, but… well, I will admit that there was something admirable in how he kept trying."_  
  
" _Kept trying?" Bela repeated._  
  
" _To make things happier," her mother continued with a reassuring smile. "He never lost the ability to keep going and try and find something better, even if he couldn't always live up to his aspirations. I admit, that stubborn determination was what drew us together in the first place, and when we were together… well, he was always a bit awkward about showing that he cared, but he always did his best."_  
  
" _In… what way?" Bela asked, as a disturbing thought crossed her mind; she'd never seen any sign of her parents having a bad marriage before that final night, but after everything her father had done to_ her _…_  
  
" _It was never like that," her mother said, her smile faltering briefly even as she maintained a fixed gaze on Bela. "Your father never did anything more unconventional than trying to buy me a few small gifts when work was well enough for him to spare the cash, even if he could just never quite get me something I truly wanted; it was always the perfume that wasn't quite my favourite, or a handbag close to what I had admired, little things like that. It was never big enough for me to get outright upset about it, but he soon realised that I was being nice and… well, he began to feel that I was humouring his efforts."_  
  
" _I see," Bela said, starting to develop a feeling where this tale was going to go. "And he… didn't take it well?"_  
  
" _I had suggested that he talk to someone about his issues in the past, but he had never… until my death, it was never anything more serious than intense arguments and a few slaps. I could pass off most of them as him being drunk, but when he hit me during an argument when he was sober, I decided that was the time I had to get you away from him…"_  
  
" _And that tipped him over the edge?"_  
  
" _The night I… he found me as I was packing," her mother nodded. "I tried to tell him that I was just taking you away so he could focus on getting himself together… but he started this rant… this whole poisonous speech about how our entire relationship was a lie because I wouldn't be honest with him, how I didn't understand him and didn't appreciate what he had to do for me…"_  
  
" _And then he killed you?"_  
  
 _Her mother nodded in response._  
  
" _That bastard."_  
  
" _He lashed out in a moment of anger after a rough life-"_  
  
"Everyone _has had rough lives, Mom, but that doesn't… he_ killed you _, do you even remember that?" Bela yelled, unable to restrain her sudden outrage at her mother. "God, I accused Dean of being a few steps away from being a serial killer when we first met, but even at my worst I never really believed he'd hurt innocent people! He and his father suffered the most difficult loss any family could suffer, but John only ever wanted to_ protect _his children; maybe he could have showed them he cared in a more traditional way, but I've never heard a_ thing _to suggest he just hurt them for the sake of hurting them!"_  
  
" _And that's why I know you found a good one," her mother smiled reassuringly, unfazed by her daughter's previous rant. "Because Dean's priority has never been about whether he's making you happy, but just whether you're happy."_  
  
 _Bela could only look at her mother in silence for a moment before she responded._  
  
" _Dean…" she said, finding herself smiling despite her earlier rage. "Dean's a good man."_  
  
" _I know," her mother nodded. "And he'll be a good father to Johanna."_  
  
" _You like it?"_  
  
" _It's… unconventional, but I understand the choice," her mother smiled. "Just make sure you choose her middle name."_  
  
" _I will," Bela replied, as she gave her mother a solemn smile. "Thanks, Mom; I… I needed this."_  
  
" _We'll see each other again some day." Her mother looked warmly at her. "Right now, you need to go back there and make your own family."_  
  
 _There was a sudden jolt that made Bela feel as though she was about to be sick-_

* * *

Once again tied to the bed, she watched as the smoke burst from her mouth back into its original meatsuit, the man reeling backwards for a moment before he stood up and looked at her with cold disgust.  
  
"You can't even let me have that, can you?"  
  
"Like I'm expected to be _sorry_ you can't _possess_ me?" Bela glared at the man, unable to believe this man's defiance of reality. "You're just a needy, pathetic idiot."  
  
"I am your _father_ -!"  
  
"Like Sam said, you're not _any_ kind of father!" Bela interrupted him, her new insight fresh in her mind. "So grandpa couldn't work and you couldn't keep up with the pressure; do you think that lets you off for what you did? Dean had to become essentially a full-on parent for his infant brother when he was only _four years old_ and he never even thought about taking it out on Sam, and John Winchester was only a rough father because he wanted to be sure his sons would be safe!"  
  
"I just wanted your mother to feel appreciated-"  
  
"She got that; you just needed to let _us_ have some say in it rather than try and set the terms yourself!" Bela glared; she appreciated on some level that demon psychology probably made this man incapable of understanding her points, but she had to say her piece. "Life isn't about you just deciding what everyone else needs and setting the rules; you had to realise-"  
  
The slap was so fast Bela didn't even realise it had been delivered until she felt her stinging cheek and saw her father glaring at her with cold contempt.  
  
"You understand _nothing_ about me," the man said in contempt. "I was going to try and give you a good experience, but if you continue to defy-"  
  
"That's your answer to everything, isn't it?" Bela said, matching his contempt with her own disgust. "I'm not going to go along with you, so I'm wrong and need to be punished?"  
  
"You have your part to play in this Apocalypse, Abby, but don't you dare think-"  
  
"The only role I have in this is making sure that your precious master gets stuck back in his Cage so that the rest of the world never even knows about it!"  
  
"Which will _never_ happen-!"  
  
Bela was spared further rants when the door to the room was kicked open and Ellen Harvelle walked in, shotgun cocked as she glared at the man.  
  
"Get the hell away from her," Ellen said firmly, aiming the weapon at his head.  
  
"And you are?" the demon retorted with a smug assessment of Ellen that made his contempt sickeningly clear. "Another example of the trailer trash my daughter associates with these days?"  
  
"Daugh…?" Ellen began, before her eyes narrowed in cold contempt. "So you're the ass who thought rapin' your own kid was a good way to get your jollies _before_ you went to Hell?"  
  
"I merely wanted to show her I cared-"  
  
Ellen's lip curled in disgust as she fired the shotgun before the demon could finish his sentence, virtually tearing away half the man's face as the force of the blast sent him flying backwards into the nearest wall.  
  
"Bastard," Ellen said, keeping the gun half-raised in the direction of her enemy as she moved over to briskly untie Bela's straps. "You OK?"  
  
"As OK as anyone would be in this situation," Bela replied with a flippancy she didn't entirely feel as she was finally able to sit up on the bed as Ellen released her arms, reaching down to release her right leg while Ellen freed her left. "He didn't get around to actually _doing_ anything more than rant at me-"  
  
A strangled roar of rage filled the room as Bela's father got back to his feet and charged at the two women, throwing Ellen into a wall before he grabbed Bela by the throat and pinned her back onto the bed. Looking up at the twisted mess that Ellen's shotgun had left of his man's face, the flesh on his left side basically gone and the bone underneath cracked, Bela prayed that the host had been dead before Ellen did that, but her focus soon shifted back to the current issue.  
  
"Yee… woo… respee…" the figure mumbled, his jaw barely mobile after the damage it had taken.  
  
"Go… to… _Hell_ ," Bela countered, reaching up to grab the man's face. For a moment she felt like throwing up at the sensation of twisted flesh and bone underneath her hands, but her focus soon shifted to concentrating completely on the demon behind that skin, the demon who had destroyed her life back when she was just a teenager, the man who had killed her mother…  
  
Her shoulder burned and she let out a desperate scream as she felt those last dregs of power from Castiel being channelled into the mangled body in front of her. The spirit that had once been her father let out a desperate scream of his own as black smoke filled the body's mouth, but then there was a brief golden glow and the smoke vanished in a brief burst of light as the body fell on top of Bela.  
  
"Ugh…" Bela winced as the foul scent of burnt flesh filled her nostrils, shoving the body off as she sat up.  
  
"Nice trick," Ellen looked at her as the older woman got up. "Where'd you get that?"  
  
"A little… leftover gift from Castiel," Bela explained, rubbing her suddenly aching shoulder. "It's not something I tap very often, and I wasn't even sure if I could do it any more, but… well, if that was the last time I could use it, I think it was a good call."  
  
"Limited use?"  
  
"Castiel… well, when he got me out of Hell, he had to give me a bit of extra energy to cure my soul of any demonic traits I'd picked up," Bela explained. "It gave me some… extra abilities that I used to save Deanna and a couple of other close calls, but I hadn't used them for a while; I wasn't even sure if I _could_ use them any more…"  
  
"I see," Ellen nodded. "Well, at least they stopped that ass; did he get anythin' big?"  
  
"Big?" Bela repeated, before she nodded in understanding. "No, he doesn't know anything about the whole 'I'm immune to Lucifer as an unbroken Seal' bit; he only wanted me because… well, it's a disturbing story and I'd rather tell it to everyone once… which reminds me, where am I and how did you find me?"  
  
"We're in Kentucky, and you can thank Bobby for that," Ellen shrugged. "When the town sheriff found your car empty with the shopping a few feet away from it, she called Bobby and he managed to do a tracking spell to find you."  
  
"A tracking spell?" Bela raised her eyes in surprise.  
  
"He's had some extra time on his hands these days, and found one that was used a bit back in the day to track down lost heirs and the like. Bit of a greyer area than he'd like to get into, but when you didn't leave much of your own stuff at his place, it was easier for him to use this spell to track the kid using samples from some of Dean's old beers."  
  
"Ah," Bela nodded in understanding as she glanced down at herself. "This is one of those cases where I'm not sure how I should feel."  
  
"Just go with happy to be alive and safe," Ellen shrugged. "Anyway, Jo's taking a break in one of Ash's old safehouses, but Bobby knew that I was in the area dealing with a salt 'n burn solo, so he called me; hunt was nothing I couldn't put off to help you out."  
  
"Jo's-?"  
  
"Getting' over it, but she's still not at her peak, and gets that I don't want her doin' anything until she's sure she can run away if it gets back," Ellen clarified.  
  
"That's… good," Bela smiled tentatively, before looking at Ellen with new curiosity. "Ash had safehouses?"  
  
"More that he kept up a database of empty houses in likely hunt-intense areas so that we'd all know where to go if we needed a place to stay without worryin' about bills," Ellen clarified. "And on that topic, we should see 'bout catching up with those Winchesters; Bobby said we could probably catch with them in Indiana if we all keep movin'."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked that; to clarify, my intention was never to create sympathy for Bela's father, but just provide some insight into how he ended up that twisted, even if the way he handled things is still far from appropriate.
> 
> That said, we get back to canon next time around, with one of the most significant episodes of even this particularly dramatic season…


	72. The Elysium Fields Hotel

"This is it?" Bela looked up at the Elysian Fields Hotel in surprise as Ellen's car came to a halt in front of the building in question. It was a surprisingly well-lit building for something on a stretch of highway that probably wouldn't get much business, its name- _The Elysian Fields Hotel_ \- displayed in blue neon lighting above the door and at the entrance. It was only a couple of stories in height, but those stories seemed to be well-built, and what Bela could see of the rooms from outside was significantly higher-quality than what she was used to finding the Winchesters staying in.

"Apparently," Ellen nodded, glancing at her phone once more before she looked back at Bela and nodded. "Yep, this is it; Dean sent Bobby an update and Bobby sent it to us."

"Well… I suppose I can't exactly complain about them finding somewhere _comfortable_ for once…" Bela said, smiling slightly as the two women got out of the car and walked into the hotel. Like the outside, the interior was illuminated with blue lighting, a bar to the immediate left of the door and a very comfortable lobby inside, with modern-looking white chairs arranged around a large fire.

"Bela?" Dean called out, prompting Bela to turn around to see her lover walking into the lobby from around a corner, his phone in his hand as he smiled at her. "Ellen? I mean, you texted me, but… seriously, what happ-?"

"My father's dead."

"In the _real_ sense of the word, right?" Dean asked, looking urgently over Bela as he walked up to her. "I mean, you're both-?"

"We're fine," Bela smiled at him, glad to see this evidence that her mother had been right; whatever his faults as a man, Dean Winchester would always do his best to satisfy her desires rather than just decide he knew best and ignore her own input. "And he's been banished back to wherever demons go when they _really_ die."

"…Good," Dean nodded in satisfaction, giving Bela a brief hug before he turned to look at Ellen. "And what got you caught up in this crap?"

"Bobby called me for help when he found out that Bela was missing," Ellen clarified. "Used a tracking spell to find her, I shot the bastard in the face when I found their room, and then Bela managed to… not sure if 'exorcise' is the right term or not, but she's fairly sure he's gone."

"Cas's gift?"

"I'm not sure if I burnt it out or not," Bela said, rubbing at her shoulder as she looked at her partner, "but that was the biggest blast I've ever used it for."

"Not the worst thing to use that up on," Dean reflected, joining Bela in rubbing her shoulder before he turned to give Ellen a similar hug to the one he'd just given Bela. "Thanks for helping her."

"Hey, we're all friends here," Ellen smiled reassuringly at Dean before she studied him with a new curiosity. "So where's Sam and Deanna in this?"

"And what about Adam and Cas?"

"We… lost 'em," Dean conceded, his voice lowering as he led the two women to another part of the hotel.

" _What_?" Bela and Ellen both hissed urgently as soon as they were in a reasonably private area.

"How could you _lose_ Cas?" Bela looked at Dean in outrage.

"Adam?" Ellen looked at Dean in confusion. "I mean, Bobby mentioned he'd been brought back, but… look, I get how the angels got him the first time, but twice?"

"Cas had to force back a group of attacking angels by carving an angel-banishing sigil on his chest, and it ended up banishing him too," Dean explained, the almost-default expression of guilt clear on his face. "We got to Adam and managed to gank Zach, but when we were gettin' out, I mentioned the kid, and… well, he decided to stay behind."

"He stayed behind?" Ellen repeated. "Your just-resurrected brother decided to stay with the damn _angels_?"

"Told me that he wanted to give me a shot at bein' with my kid even if he couldn't get his mom back," Dean explained, his tone reinforcing his guilt and self-loathing at this turn of events. "Grams went off to the family compound to see if she could find somethin' that might help us track him down, and Sam and I spent a bit of time checkin' out a few hoodoo places who might have a clue…"

He trailed off, which was more than enough for the two women to establish that the Winchesters' efforts hadn't been successful, before he continued. "Anyway, we were on our way back to Bobby's when we found… well, we found this place and decided to take a break for the night."

"I see," Bela mused, before she gave Dean a wistful smile. "Well, at least that proves Adam's _your_ brother."

"Yep; sacrificing himself to try and keep the family safe," Ellen said grimly. "That's Winchesters all over."

"Even Dad?" Dean asked.

"I was ticked off at him for _failing_ to save Bill; never meant to suggest that I thought he didn't try to do it," Ellen acknowledged with a solemn smile before she indicated the door. "Well, long as we're here, any objection to an old woman joining you three young 'uns in a night off?"

"I think we can work with that," Bela smiled at her.

"Never complained about company," Dean nodded in confirmation.

* * *

In hindsight, Bela supposed that it would have been too much for them to expect that they could find a four-star hotel on a highway to nowhere and believe that they had just lucked out after a difficult day. She and Ellen had been able to check into the hotel easily enough, and the food had been enjoyable enough, but when they went up to their rooms and heard their neighbours doing something loud before their room suddenly became empty, it became clear to all four hunters that there was something out of the ordinary taking place in this hotel.  
  
It had taken a few moments for Bela to argue that she was safer staying with the rest of the group than going back to her room, particularly when she made the valid point that they didn't know what was going on and couldn't be sure where she'd be safe. The lone engagement ring was a troubling clue that none of them wanted to analyse any closer than they had to, but while a talk with the reception staff had tentatively confirmed he had some role in whatever was going on, that didn't give them any clear ideas beyond Dean's report of seeing an elephant in a room that was subsequently occupied by an overweight man.  
  
"Elephants?" Ellen shook her head in exasperation as the four of them stood on the edge of the lobby. "Why is it you guys get the really weird hunts?"  
  
"I'd say we were just lucky, but these days…" Dean shrugged.  
  
"And there's no point trying to leave," Sam put in. "I checked the doors while you were talking with the receptionist, and they're pretty securely locked up."  
  
"Which fits the idea that something _lured_ us here," Bela said. "Or at least it lured you two here and Ellen and me just followed you at the right time."  
  
"Right time?"  
  
"Right time not to get caught in the worst of the weather out there," Bela noted, indicating the wind blowing outside the nearest window. "Obviously this isn't a good time to be here, but I have a feeling this place isn't intended for people like us however you look at it."  
  
"Add in what I found in that kitchen, and I'm inclined to agree with you," Ellen observed grimly. "So, what are we…?"  
  
Her voice trailed off as she turned around to look in exasperation at the men who had gathered behind the group while they were talking. "This isn't good."  
  
"Quite," the man said firmly.

* * *

"Ladies and gentlemen," the tall man in the dark suit who was apparently in charge of this meeting said, clinking a fork against his champagne glass as the hunters sat in their seats in front of the main table, the apparent gods sitting solemnly in their seats, "thank you for coming, although in all my centuries, I never thought I'd see this many gods under one roof."  
  
The four humans exchanged anxious glances at each other at that statement. They appreciated that a few gods were content to just retain power from their remaining worshippers, but any time gods gathered together like this couldn't be for a good reason, even before factoring in the human organs that had been delivered for dinner earlier.  
  
"Now," the speaker continued, "before we get down to brass tacks, some ground rules. No slaughtering each other. Curb your wrath. Oh, and uh, keep your hands off the local virgins. We're, trying to keep a low profile here."  
  
"We're in big trouble," Ellen mused grimly.  
  
"Now we all know why we're here," the apparent god continued. "The Judeo-Christian apocalypse looms over us. I know we've all had our little disagreements in the past. The time has come to put those aside and look toward the future. Because if we don't, we won't have one. Now we do have two very valuable bargaining chips; Michael, and Lucifer's vessels, and a couple of their close associates into the bargain. The question is, what do we do now? Anybody have any bright ideas? Speak up. This is a safe room."  
  
One of the gods- an overweight Japanese-looking figure- said something in an angry tone that didn't give any of the hunters the sense that he liked them  
  
"Kill 'em?" the fat dark-skinned man on the other side of the table asked. "What, so the angels can bring them back again?"  
  
"I don't know what everybody's getting so worked up about!" an old man said, this man wearing a fur-lined leather coat in contrast to the suits and evening dresses of the other gods around the table. "'Cause it's just a couple of angels having a slap fight! There's no Armageddon. Everybody knows, when the world comes to an end, the Great Serpent Jormungandr rises up, and I myself will be eaten by a big wolf!"  
  
"…Odin?" Ellen looked at the old man in surprise before glancing back at Bela. "If that's Odin, isn't he meant to have one eye?"  
  
"Maybe he got a glass one rather than stick with the eyepatch?" Sam observed as the overweight foreign god spoke again.  
  
"Oh yeah? And why is that?" the apparent Odin responded. "Because your beliefs are so much more realistic? The whole world's getting carried around on the back of a giant turtle? Ha! Give me a break!"  
  
"This is getting ridiculous," Bela shook her head as the foreign god spoke again, which somehow degenerated into the other god arguing with Odin while Bela glanced over at the others before jerking her head towards the door. As the other attending gods watched the argument between Odin and the other god, the quartet of hunters tried to move towards the door, before a chandelier suddenly fell into the middle of the room with a loud crash.  
  
"Stay," an unfamiliar dark-skinned woman in a red dress said, standing up to glare at the hunters before she turned her attention back to the surrounding gods. "We have to fight. The archangels… the only thing they understand is violence. This ends in blood. There is no other way; it's them, or us."  
  
"With all due respect, ma'am, we haven't even tried talking to them," the god who had been the concierge began, before he started choking up blood and clutching at his throat as she glared at him.  
  
"Kali!" the original speaker said.  
  
"Who asked you?" the apparent Kali said, still glaring coldly at the other god even as he stopped coughing.  
  
Before anyone else could say anything, the door swung open behind them and a figure walked in, dressed in a casual leather jacket and blue shirt, smiling around the table.  
  
"Can't we all just get along?" the new arrival said, as Dean and Sam looked at the new arrival in shock. Dean began to say something before the new arrival held up his fingers and Dean was suddenly holding his throat as though surprised at the loss of his voice. "Sam, Dean, it's always wrong place wrong time with you muttonheads, isn't it?"  
  
"Loki," the original speaker said. The name at least answered Bela's immediate question about the new arrival's identity- she recalled Dean telling her how they'd learned that the Trickster they'd encountered in the past was actually the archangel Gabriel in his own personal form of 'witness protection'- but she suddenly wasn't sure what Ellen knew about this guy…  
  
"Baldur," Loki/Gabriel said (Bela had to wonder where some of the Norse myths even came from if Baldur wasn't dead). "Good seeing you too. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail."  
  
"Why are you here?" Baldur said.  
  
"To talk about the elephant in the room," the new arrival said nonchalantly, waving an apologetic hand at the overweight dark-skinned man as he stood up. "Not you; the Apocalypse. We can't stop it gang, but first things first. The adults need to have a little conversation; check you later."  
  
The disguised archangel snapped his fingers-

* * *

The four hunters found themselves standing in a hotel room, looking anxiously around themselves before they had confirmed there were no tricks or traps awaiting them here.  
  
"OK," Ellen looked firmly at Dean and Sam, "if we've been sent out, what the Hell does that Loki guy not want you to tell everyone else?"  
  
"Probably that he's not Loki," Sam responded. "He's Gabriel."  
  
" _Gabriel_?" Ellen repeated, shaking her head in confusion. "As in the angel?"  
  
"The _arch_ angel," Bela nodded in recollection as she looked at the Winchesters for clarification. "You mentioned that; he's in… witness protection, right?"  
  
"Witness protection?" Ellen repeated incredulously. "You sods seriously… what would an _angel_ need with witness protection?"  
  
"He basically decided to stay out of the whole Apocalypse thing after his brothers started trying to beat the crap out of each other," Dean explained.  
  
"Right…" Ellen nodded, shaking her head in exasperation. "The one archangel who doesn't want the Apocalypse just decided to cut and run… So what do we do now?"  
  
"…Get those saps out of the freezer?" Dean suggested tentatively. "Bust 'em out? Gank a few freaks along the way if we're lucky?"  
  
"And when are you ever lucky?" Gabriel's voice said, the four humans turning around to see Gabriel sitting nonchalantly in the corner of the room.  
  
"You know what?" Dean glared at the other man. "Bite me, Gabriel."  
  
"Maybe later, big boy," the undercover archangel smirked.  
  
"I should've known," Dean said bitterly. "I mean, this had your stink all over it from the jump-"  
  
"You think I'm behind this?" Gabriel shook his head as he stood up. "Please, I'm the Costner to your Houston; I'm here to save your ass."  
  
"You're going to save us?" Bela looked at him in surprise. "I thought you told Dean and Sam you were staying out of this mess?"  
  
"Ah, the delectable Bela Talbot, I presume?" Gabriel grinned at her. "A pleasure to meet the mother of the next generation-"  
  
"My daughter will _not_ be Michael's next vessel!" Bela cut him off with a firm glare.  
  
"Never intended to imply otherwise," Gabriel raised his hands nonchalantly before he turned to Ellen. "And Ellen Harvelle, correct? Basically the badass mommy hunter to these disreputable sods?"  
  
"Get to the point," Ellen folded her arms and fixing the angel with a cold stare as though he was just a troublesome customer from the Roadhouse. "You're getting us out of here?"  
  
"Bingo!" Gabriel affirmed with a snap of his fingers. "Those guys are either gonna dust the Winchesters or use them as bait, while keeping you two lovely ladies around to keep them contained; either way, you're uber boned."  
  
"After all that crap a few months ago about us needing to 'play our roles'?" Dean countered.  
  
"Oh, the end's still nigh," Gabriel conceded. "Michael and Lucifer are gonna dance the lambada, but not tonight; not here."  
  
"And why do you care?" Ellen asked.  
  
"I don't," Gabriel said, suddenly shifting awkwardly as he stood in front of the group. "But… me and Kali, we, uh, had a thing; chick was all hands. What can I say? I'm sentimental."  
  
"She got jiggy with you when she thought you were some Norse trickster?" Ellen asked.  
  
"They don't exactly spend all their time either beating the crap out of each other or killing people, you know."  
  
"Do they have a chance?" Sam asked. "Against Satan."  
  
"Wh- oh, you've _got_ to be kiddin' me," Ellen looked over at Sam. "You think we can do a Godzilla/King Kong match-up here?"  
  
"And it's a bad idea anyway," Gabriel cut in firmly. "Lucifer's gonna turn them into finger paint, so let's get going while the going's good, mmm?"  
  
"OK, great," Dean said. "Why don't you just zap us outta here then?"  
  
"Would if I could," Gabriel shrugged, "but Kali's got you by the short and curlies. It's a blood spell; you boys are on a leash."  
  
"We're stuck here as long as she wants us here?" Bela asked.  
  
"Bingo; no way outta this place unless she lets you go," Gabriel confirmed, pulling a small phial of breath spray out of his pocket to spritz his mouth. "Which means it's time for a bit of the old black magic."  
  
"OK, that works," Ellen nodded. "You get the blood spell down, we empty that freezer down below-"  
  
"Yeah, _that's_ not gonna work," Gabriel cut her off as he held up his finger. "It's gonna be hard enough pullin' this off for just you four mooks-"  
  
"Unless you _want_ them to know that this little 'Loki' alias you've got going for yourself is just that," Bela cut in with a foreboding smile.  
  
"You wouldn't," Gabriel countered, his smirk faltering into a cooler glare.  
  
"Help us get those people out, and the anti-angel crowd down below will _never_ have to know what you really are," Sam nodded, picking up on Bela's train of thought.  
  
"I'll take your voices away."  
  
"We'll write it down," Dean retorted.  
  
"I'll cut off your hands."  
  
"Well, then people are gonna be asking 'Why are you guys running around with no hands'?"  
  
"Which won't stop us getting a pencil in our mouths and writing it that way," Ellen added.  
  
"And I can try and break out my old interpretive dance skills," Bela grinned.  
  
"Interpretive dance?" Dean looked at his partner with an amused smile.  
  
"My mother took lessons when she was a child and taught me a few things," Bela noted. "Granted, I'm probably a bit rusty, but I think I can pull something off when those gods will certainly be curious about what happened to us…"  
  
"Fine," Gabriel groaned in exasperation. "I'll… see what I can do."  
  
"Thank you," Bela nodded politely at the archangel.  
  
Granted, she wasn't sure if she could actually 'mime' the idea that Loki was Gabriel to the gods, but the idea that she could at least seemed to be making him think.  
  
 _Here's hoping that's enough incentive for him to help us get everyone to safety…_


	73. Rally the Gods

Walking carefully down the corridor towards the kitchen and the disturbingly filled freezer unit, Bela wondered how things could have reached the point where the idea of relying on an archangel to distract a goddess seemed almost normal to her.

 _OK, it's not something we'd do on a regular basis, but there are probably hunters out there who go their whole careers and never face anything more dangerous than a few really angry ghosts_ …

As they reached the door to the kitchen, Bela exchanged anxious glances with Dean, Sam and Ellen as they heard someone screaming, followed by two men she recognised from the conference room dragging another man into the lobby, the unfamiliar man having clearly come from the freezer. Bela didn't even have time to think about how to act before one of the men struck the man in the neck with a cleaver, killing the man instantly, although she noticed Sam holding Dean back with a whispered warning. As they dragged the body away, Bela could only exchange a brief glance with the other hunters before they hurried into the kitchen, Dean taking up position to try and pick the lock on the freezer while the other three settled into a defensive stance around him.

"This isn't going well, huh?" Ellen asked.

"We're not dealing with a normal situation here by _anyone's_ standards, Ellen; all we can do is focus on the final goal and keep trying to make it work," Sam said.

"Exactly," Bela nodded. "We get them out, Gabriel gets our blood out of Kali's hands, and-"

A large hand suddenly grabbed Bela's shoulder and moved to haul her away, leaving Ellen to dive into action and grab Bela before the other woman hit something that might have hurt the baby. Sam charged in to try and attack the new arrival, but the apparent god grabbed Sam by the throat and pinned him against the freezer. Unsure if this weapon would work but stuck for better options, Bela pulled out her angel blade and rammed it into the god's back, prompting him to release Sam as he staggered back, eyes and mouth glowing as he screamed in pain. The god turned around with a powerful swing of his arm that Bela only just managed to duck, but she was saved from further efforts when Ellen rammed a wooden stake into the god's side, the new blow driving an even greater scream of agony from the god's throat before he fell to the ground.

"OK," Ellen glanced around the kitchen with a slightly thoughtful smile. "Not the best hunt I've ever been on, but I think we did OK there… and what was that knife?"

"An angel's weapon I took from a psycho angel who'd been killing some of his associates when he couldn't convince them to help him release Lucifer," Bela explained. "Castiel let me keep it after I helped him stop the bastard."

"Well," Dean shrugged from his position by the locker, "'least we worked out that angel weapons can hurt pagans, even if they don't stop the suckers directly."

"Everything helps," Bela conceded, turning back to the locker before something grabbed them from behind.

"Now then," another unnamed god from the earlier conference said, looking mockingly between Bela and Dean, "shall we talk again?"

* * *

As the four hunters were thrown into the ballroom once again, Dean prayed that Bela's pregnancy wasn't far enough along for this kind of rough treatment to be that dangerous to the baby; he had faith that the future Johanna wasn't going to die that easily, but that wouldn't stop him from worrying about the family he'd never imagined…  
  
When he looked up and saw Gabriel sitting at a table in a very dejected manner while Kali stood over him, he re-evaluated just how bad things were; considering the anti-angel sentiment expressed by this group so far, he wasn't feeling particularly good about the Trickster's chances.  
  
"How long have you known?" Gabriel asked, which answered Dean's most urgent question without him needing to waste time trying to establish a more discreet way of bringing it up.  
  
"Long enough," Kali replied.  
  
"How's the rescue going?" Dean put in bitterly, only to be met with a glare from Gabriel.  
  
"Well, surprise, surprise," Kali addressed the other gods in the room. "The Trickster has tricked us."  
  
"Kali, don't," Gabriel whispered.  
  
"You're mine now, and you have something I want," Kali said, leaning over to reach into Gabriel's jacket and pull out an angel blade. "An archangel's blade… from the archangel Gabriel."  
  
 _Crap_ , Dean exchanged glances with the other hunters. _Bang goes our best possible edge_.  
  
"OK, OK!" Gabriel said nonchalantly as he looked around the room. "So I got wings, like Kotex; that doesn't make me any less right about Lucifer."  
  
"He's lying," Kali said with contempt. "He's a spy."  
  
"I'm not a spy, I'm a runaway," Gabriel protested. "I'm trying to save you. I know my brother, Kali. He should scare the living crap out of you. You _can't_ beat him. I've skipped ahead, seen how this story ends-"  
  
"Your story; not ours," Kali cut him off, even as there was a faint trace of tears in her eyes. "Westerners, I swear; the sheer _arrogance_. You think you're the only ones on Earth? You pillage and you butcher in your God's name, but you're not the only religion, and he's not the only God. And now you think you can just rip the planet apart? You're wrong. There are billions of us. And we were here first. If anyone gets to end this world, it's me. I'm sorry."  
  
Dean saw that Bela almost yelled out in protest as Kali slammed the blade into Gabriel's chest, causing the familiar white glow of a dying angel, even as the ex-thief bit her lip to stop herself drawing too much attention to herself.  
  
"This is crazy," one of the other gods said.  
  
"They can die," Kali said, even as she continued staring at Gabriel's corpse. "We can kill Lucifer."  
  
 _That does it_ , Dean thought to himself grimly.  
  
Whether or not this plan could work, and his own issues with these guys aside, god-versus-archangel in a Godzilla-versus-King Kong-esque match-up was still the best idea any of them had found since the Colt had proven useless, which was more than they'd had for months.  
  
"All right, you primitive screwheads, listen up," he said, hoping that none of these gods were arrogant enough to just kill him outright.  
  
"Are you outta your mind?" Ellen hissed over at him.  
  
"Out of options," Dean whispered back to the older woman before he turned back to the gods, walking over to collect a drink from a table set up at the end of the room. "Now, on any other given day, I'd be doing my damndest to kill you all, but right now we're facing some desperate times and… well, I have reasons not to want this to go any further. So even though I'd love nothing better than to slit your throats, you dicks, we're gonna help you ice the devil, and then we can all get back to ganking each other, like normal. You want Lucifer, well, dude's not in the Yellow Pages. But me and Sam, we can get him here."  
  
"How?" Kali asked.  
  
"First let everyone in the freezer go," Bela said resolutely.  
  
"And then we'll work out how to take down the Devil," Ellen said, before she shook her head and looked over at Sam. "Y'know, my life was fairly normal before you Winchesters walked into the Roadhouse."  
  
"But it was a bit more boring, right?" Bela smiled. "And that was the bad kind of boring?"  
  
"…Can't deny that," Ellen grinned back at the other woman.  
  
 _That's certainly true_ , Dean mused as he exchanged glances with his brother.  
  
Their lives were unquestionably more complicated than even for standard hunters, but Dean had to admit that a part of him genuinely appreciated the thrill of the hunting experience.

* * *

With Sam and Ellen contemplating battle strategies back in the hotel, Bela had immediately volunteered to help Dean lead the humans to safety; maybe it was a small victory when they were about to try and fight the devil with a bunch of pagan gods, but when they'd spent so long just holding the line against Lucifer getting a vessel Bela would take any victory where humans got away with their lives. Once the doors to the freezer had been opened and Kali had given a brief heat blast to warm up the former prisoners, it didn't take them long to follow Dean and Bela to the hotel doors, the two hunters watching as everyone ran from the building.  
  
Bela didn't know if this would be enough, but with the weather picking up and no immediate sign of Lucifer, those people might have a chance…  
  
"Dean!" a voice called from the Impala as the last of the former prisoners vanished from the car park, revealing the still-very-much-alive Gabriel squatting in the back of the Impala. "Don't look at me! Act natural. Get in."  
  
Exchanging exasperated glances with Bela, Dean walked around the car and got into the driver's seat, Bela following his example as she settled into the passenger seat beside him (trying not to enjoy the moment; it was so rare that anyone got to sit up front in this thing if they weren't a Winchester…).  
  
"Man, there is nothing natural about all this," Dean looked firmly at the man in the back of his car. "I thought you were dead."  
  
"How did you pull that off?" Bela asked, looking urgently at the archangel.  
  
"You think I'd give Kali my real sword?" Gabriel replied with a smirk. "That thing can kill me!"  
  
"So… you slipped her a fake?" Bela asked.  
  
"Made from a can of diet orange slice," Gabriel shrugged. "So… any chance you could go in there and snag your blood?"  
  
"Wh- oh, _Hell_ , no," Dean said.  
  
"What's the problem?" Gabriel shrugged. "Kali likes you; you get in close-"  
  
"I have a _kid_ on the way now, you ass; I'm not gonna just… I don't screw around like that, OK?" Dean protested indignantly.  
  
"Really?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow before he looked over at Bela with a grin. "Kudos to you, Ms Talbot; you managed to win over one of the biggest flirts I've ever met, and coming from me-"  
  
"That means _nothing_ ," Bela said indignantly. "Look, you're here now; we're trying to rally the other gods to make a stand, but if you were standing with them-"  
  
"You're kidding, right?" Gabriel looked sceptically at her.  
  
"Hardly," Dean said grimly.  
  
"Since when are you all butt buddies with a bunch of monsters?" Gabriel said. "That's all they are to you, aren't they?"  
  
"Maybe," Bela conceded, deciding not to get into a debate about just how monstrous these lesser gods could be. "But we've had enough close calls over the last year or so to realise that we're going to need to bend the rules and do something unexpected if we're going to beat Lucifer; if you have a better idea than this, I'd like to hear it."  
  
"Your call," Gabriel shook his head. "Personally, I'm blowing Jonestown; these lemmings wanna run off a cliff, that's their business."  
  
"Maybe I'd buy that if I hadn't spent the last two years falling in love with a woman I once considered a self-centred bitch," Dean retorted. "But after all that, I can tell that smart-ass shell's just covering up the part of you that really _does_ give a crap about all this."  
  
"Really?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow as he smirked at Dean.  
  
"Really," Dean said. "And maybe those freaks in there aren't your blood, but they are your family."  
  
"They just stabbed me in the friggin' heart!"  
  
"Which doesn't stop you caring about them," Bela smiled, trying to fight down the urge to let out an uncharacteristic whoop of joy at Dean's previous words; there would be time for them to talk about _that_ later.  
  
"Exactly," Dean said firmly to the archangel. "They're gonna die in there if you don't step up."  
  
"…I can't kill my brother," Gabriel said at last.  
  
"Can't or won't?" Dean countered, the silent stare he received from Gabriel all the answer he needed. "That's what I thought."  
  
He turned and got out of the car, only to pause when he realised that Bela was still sitting inside it. "You coming?"  
  
"In… in a moment," Bela said, smiling at Dean. "I've just… got something I need to work out first."  
  
"Right…" Dean said, his expression sceptical even as he gave her an accepting nod before he turned around and walked back into the hotel.  
  
"So what is this?" Gabriel looked over at Bela. "An intervention?"  
  
"Just an idea I had that might help us all get out of this situation," Bela replied. "But if it's going to work, I need you to clear something up for me…"


	74. The Angel Gabriela

"So," Kali looked coolly at Sam as Ellen sat off to the side, the older woman clearly dismissed by the gods, "you're going to summon Lucifer?"

"Sort of," Sam observed. "I just need you to squeegee some stuff from my ribs and he'll come running."

"What?" Ellen looked sceptically at Sam.

"Cas put Enochian sigils on our ribs to block angels from finding us-"

"Which means we could just break them-" Kali began, before Dean walked into the room with a cool glare.

"Show's over," he said. "Sword's a fake, and Gabriel's still kicking. I hate to break it to you, sister, but you've been tricked."

"What?" Kali looked pointedly at Dean.

"Yeah, Gabe gave me the 411 on his own plan before he cut out of here," the elder Winchester said grimly. "That archangel blade's useless, but maybe we can hold the prick off with the standard models now that you're backing us up-"

The lights began to flicker above them, prompting an anxious glance upwards from Balder before they heard the sound of screams from further in the hotel.

"What's happening?" Baldur asked, before a strangled scream was heard from further in the hotel.

"It's him," Sam said grimly, as bloody 'explosions' and further screams reached their ears, each one growing worryingly closer.

"How?" Kali asked.

"Does it matter?" Dean said. "Shazam us outta here, would ya?"

"We can't," Baldur said, walking up to the door of the conference room just as Lucifer walked in, his vessel now displaying what looked like sores around a pale face.

"Of course you can't," Lucifer said. "You didn't say 'Mother, may I'?"

"You're really doing that?" Ellen spat out before she slapped a hand over her mouth, looking anxiously at the devil before her.

"Ellen Harvelle, I believe?" Lucifer nodded at her before he turned to the Winchesters. "Sam, Dean; good to see you again."

"Baldur, don't," Kali said warningly, even as the other god stood before Lucifer.

"You think you own the planet?" Baldur proclaimed. "What gives you the _right_?"

As the hunters and Kali watched, Baldur walked up to Lucifer, only to be met with a sickening crunch as Lucifer plunged his hand into Baldur's chest.

"No one gives us the right," Lucifer observed, as the dying Baldur stared at his killer in shock. "We take it."

With those words, Lucifer turned to face Kali as the last goddess standing was suddenly engulfed in fire before she hurled the flames at Lucifer, leaving the hunters to dive for whatever cover they could find under the nearest table. When the flames had faded, they looked up to see Kali attempting to attack Lucifer with her still-blazing arms, only for the archangel to punch Kali and send her flying. Sam was just about to ask for ideas when the door to the conference room opened once more.

"Lucy, I'm home," Gabriel said, blade in one hand and the other outstretched, hurling Lucifer to the other side of the room.

"You're stepping up, huh?" Ellen asked as she and the Winchesters got to their feet.

"Better late than never, huh?" Gabriel responded, as he passed a DVD to Dean and helped Kali to her feet. "Guard this with your life, and get her outta here."

Out of options, the three hunters ran for the door as Gabriel stood between them and Lucifer with his angel blade in one hand, Kali beside Ellen as they left the hotel. The goddess put up a token protest as she got into Ellen's truck, but it was clear that she had no serious objection to the situation as the two cars pulled away from the hotel.

"Where's Gabriel?" Bela asked from her position in the Impala's back seat, the Winchesters in the front as they rapidly drove away from the building.

"Facing off with Lucifer," Sam replied grimly.

"And if he can't take the bastard down now, we're pretty much out of options," Dean said grimly, hands tightening on the wheel before he looked back at Bela. "And what are you doing here?"

"Gabriel… when he left, he said that he sensed Lucifer on his way," Bela explained awkwardly. "Considering that we don't exactly want to advertise that Lucifer _can't_ sense me, he suggested that I should just… stay out here until you could all get away."

"Fair enough," Sam smiled slightly at her, turning back as the Impala settled onto a straight stretch of road. "So… that was a bust, huh?"

"We've lost two of our best chances to stop Lucy without just turning Michael on him and hoping it all works out, and now we're even _more_ screwed," Dean nodded, his tensed shoulders giving the impression that he would have hit something if he hadn't been driving. "I'd say we're running out of options, but we didn't exactly _have_ options to start with-"

Conversation was cut short when Bela's head suddenly reeled backwards and her eyes and mouth glowed a brilliant white, prompting Dean to slam on the brakes as he and Sam turned to look anxiously at her.

"What the _Hell_?" Dean yelled as the glow faded from Bela's eyes. "What just-?"

"Nothing big, Dean-o," Bela replied, a teasing grin on her face as she looked at him. "Just decided to switch for a few minutes."

Dean didn't know if he should laugh or yell at this turn of events.

The way Bela was looking at him… the way she'd said his name…

"…Gabriel?" Sam looked uncertainly at Bela.

"In the flesh," 'Bela' nodded at Sam with a grin before 'she' looked down at 'herself'. "Although maybe 'Gabriel _a_ ' would be more appropriate right now-"

"What the _hell_ are you doing-?" Dean began.

"Now, before you get all worked up about this, I feel obligated to clarify that not only will this just be a temporary measure, but it was all _her_ idea in the first place," 'Gabriela' held up her hands with a reassuring smile.

"What?" the Winchesters said simultaneously.

"Yeah, she told me about how her demonic former daddy tried to capture her in the hope that she could be a temporary vessel for old Luci because of her kid giving her vessel-esque traits, and asked if it would be possible for _me_ to pull that off if she gave me permission," the now-female archangel explained. "It's only good for a few minutes unless I want to put the kid at risk, but that's enough for what she was thinking."

"Which is?"

"I fake my death," the archangel grinned.

"You faked your death?" Dean asked. "After all that-?"

"Look, I _tried_ to take him down, but Luci caught me off-guard and stabbed me in the gut; it was bail out and make my departure look like my death or stay in my vessel and _really_ bite the bullet," 'Gabriela' protested, winching as 'she' placed a hand on 'her' ribs just between the baby bump and 'her' breasts. "Point is that I managed to time my ditching the old vessel so that my psycho bro managed to damage my Grace without doing enough to actually _kill_ me, which means I'm not going to be in fighting shape for a few weeks until I can heal the damage, but _does_ give him the illusion that he took me off the board while I give you all another idea before I go back and get my true vessel to safety."

"And we should believe this?" Dean asked. "After you were all 'play your roles' last time?"

"Seriously," 'Gabriela' said, shaking her head with an exasperated smile, "as much as I loved my brother, these days, he's one big bag of dicks, and Mikey and Raph aren't much better. I mean, the guy was Dad's favourite back in the day, but then the new baby comes along and all he can do is complain about how he's lost his place…"

The archangel shook 'her' head in exasperation. "When you get down to it, the guy might call _you_ 'broken, flawed abortions', but at least some of you _try_ to be better; Bela alone's gone from being a self-centred bitch to putting herself at risk to try and help other people, and you can't tell me that's just because Dean's such a-"

"The _point_?" Dean cut the archangel off with an indignant glare.

"OK, sensitive topic," 'Gabriela' conceded before he continued. "Anyway, like I was saying, I can't help you kill Lucifer in this state before he decides to try and wage the Apocalypse on his own, and with me off the board there's not exactly an alternative beyond letting Michael to his thing, but there _is_ another option."

"What?" Sam asked.

"The cage you sprung Lucifer from?" 'Gabriela' continued. "It's still down there, and maybe, just maybe, you can shove his ass back in. Not that it'll be easy; you gotta get the cage open, trick my bro back into it, and, uh, oh yeah, avoid Michael and the God Squad. But hey, details, right?"

"I'll be damned…" Sam said, grinning as he looked between Dean and the angel. "That could actually work."

"And even better?" 'Gabriela' grinned encouragingly at the Winchesters. "Lucifer himself doesn't even know that the keys to the cage are out here."

"Key _s_?" Dean looked sharply at the archangel. "Lemme guess; that's the catch?"

"Bingo," the archangel nodded with a more solemn expression that Dean still wasn't used to seeing on Bela's face after over a year in a relationship with her. "To be precise, it's four keys in the form of the four rings of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse."

"The Horsemens' rings?" Dean looked at 'Gabriela' incredulously.

"Guess Dad wanted a way to get Luci out if the guy was sorry that didn't require him to kill people," 'Gabriela' shrugged. "It works two ways, but I obviously can't give you any pointers on how to get those rings _or_ get my brother to go into that cage in the first place, but hey; you've pulled off the impossible before, right?"

"Is that-?" Dean began, before 'Gabriela' suddenly vanished from the back of the car, prompting a frustrated yell from Dean before the woman was back in the rear seat, her head leaning back as a brilliant white stream emerged from Bela's mouth. Dean slammed on the brakes to watch as the glow hit the roof of the car and then vanished, leaving Bela to look between the brothers.

"…Hi?" she said tentatively.

"That's-?" Dean began.

"It's me," Bela nodded.

"Gabriel?" Sam asked.

"Used me to get his vessel's body somewhere safe, and then brought me back here so that he could go off and focus on healing his vessel and himself," Bela explained. "He'll let us know when he's back to fighting shape-"

"And what the _Hell_ were you _thinking_?" Dean cut her off. "We've been fightin' _not_ to say yes to these guys for the last year-!"

"I had an opportunity to help an ally-"

"By letting him go for a _ride inside you_?"

"That sounds a lot dirtier than it really should-"

"This is no time for jokes, Sam; this is my goddamn _kid_ we're talking about here!" Dean yelled. "You can't just-!"

"Can't what?" Bela countered. "Take the big risks to save the world? Put my life on the line to save other people? You do it all the time, and I'm sorry that I had to put Johanna at risk too, but it was the best way to give Gabriel a _chance_!"

"I… it's just…" Dean began, before he trailed off and slumped back into the driver's seat in exasperation. "Damnit, why can't I just be angry at you?"

"That's our relationship," Bela grinned, reaching over to caress his face with a warm grin. "We've got a very volatile dynamic."

"But it works for us," Dean nodded, grinning back at the ex-thief before he sighed and looked solemnly between his brother and his lover. "Well… if we're gonna do this, at least we've already got War and Famine's rings; all we need now is Pestilence and Death's."

"It's… a plan," Sam nodded tentatively.

Gabriel may not be able to help them out in the upcoming confrontation until he had healed, but Dean felt slightly better now that they at least had a tentative plan beyond 'don't say Yes to the archangels'…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And before anyone asks, Bela being Gabriel's temporary emergency vessel is _not_ her secret 'anti-Lucifer' plan that she's been working on since Carthage; that particular card is still to be played…


	75. Facing the Stableboy

Even with Gabriel's advice, Dean wished they had a clearer idea what to do about finding the bastard. It wasn't hard for him and Sam to pick up Pestilence's trail after they had dropped Ellen and Bela back in Sioux Falls, but the problem lay in finding out where the Horseman was going to be _before_ he got there. So far the swine flu case seemed relatively straightforward as a disease, compared to what the demons could have been using, but the scale of the current outbreak mid-Apocalypse couldn't exactly be a coincidence, especially with those crying statues to take into account…

It gave them a kind of goal, but when even Bobby couldn't suggest anything beyond 'head east', they needed something more to work on if they were going to pull anything off. Bela had even agreed to go and stay with Sarah to keep herself 'off the radar' until they had any of the rings for themselves, but that left Dean and Sam with no idea where they were going and only a fragmentary idea about what they were actually trying to stop. Dean knew from his trip to the future that the demons were going to use the Croatoan virus again at some point, but if they hadn't used it _yet_ did that mean it just wasn't going to be brought out until after Lucifer had killed Michael…?

"We need a better plan," he muttered as he and Sam drove along the road.

"But what?" Sam asked. "It's not like we have a 'Horseman-tracking spell' we can use…"

"I might have an idea about that."

Spinning around as Dean slammed on the brakes, the two brothers found themselves looking at a bearded man with a receding hairline dressed in a sharp business suit, looking nonchalantly between them even though he hadn't been there moments ago.

"Who the _Hell_ are _you_?" Dean said indignantly.

"Your better half never told you about me?" the figure said, actually managing to sound as though he was truly offended at that detail. "I'm hurt."

"Hold on; that accent… you're Crowley, right?" Sam looked at the man in new understanding. "You gave Bela back the Colt because you think Lucifer's just going to kill all demons once he's taken Michael out?"

"Bingo," Crowley said, before he shot them a cool glare. "And you _do_ realise you haven't lived up to your end of that particular deal-?"

"It's not like it's _our_ fault that we only learned the Colt couldn't kill him after we tried to use it!" Sam protested, even as the three scrambled out of the car to continue the conversation. "We almost lost good people on that-!"

"Who you take on the ride is your own business; it doesn't change the situation," Crowley said firmly, even as the Winchesters 'surrounded' the demon outside the car (probably a pointless gesture when he could teleport, but the appearance helped to give them some sense of control). "What's important right now is that I can give you Pestilence."

"…How?" Dean looked thoughtfully at the demon.

"How- are you really thinking about-?" Sam began.

"We have to _think_ about it, anyway," Dean cut his brother off and turned back to Crowley. "Look, if you're still here, does anyone else _know_ you tried to kill the devil?"

"I'm the most buggered son in all of creation right now; does that answer your question?"

"Yeah," Dean nodded.

"They burnt down my house!" the demon yelled indignantly. "They ate my tailor! Two months under a rock, like a _bloody_ salamander! Every demon on hell and earth's got his eyes out for me! And yet, here I am, last place I should be; in the road, talking to Sam and Dean Winchester!"

"We didn't _make_ you come to get us, and if we're all on the goddamn run, best you give us what we're after and tell us whatever you know about them," Dean said firmly even as Crowley continued to fume at them. "Starting with how you know about why we want the Horsemen in the first place."

"I've been keeping a close eye on you lot," Crowley said as though that answered that question. "Heard about the plan with the rings-"

"And we'll discuss _that_ later," Dean said, making a note to search the car once Crowley was gone. "You said you might have an idea about the Horsemen?"

"You're looking for Pestilence right now, I believe?" the demon explained nonchalantly. "I will stress that I don't _know_ where he is, per se, but I do know the demon who does. He's what you might call the horsemen's stable boy. He handles their itineraries, their personal needs. He's who you want, believe me. He'll tell us where Sneezy's at."

"And how do we get him to spill?" Dean observed. "Rip out his toenails?"

"No," Crowley said. "Nuts at his pay grade don't crack; we bring him here, then I sell him."

"Sell him?" Sam repeated.

"I've sold sin to saints for centuries," Crowley smirked. "Think I can't close one little demon?"

"And where is this demon?" Dean asked.

"Working with Niveus Pharmaceutical. You're looking for the vice president for distribution."

"A pharmaceutical company?" Sam asked.

"We'll work that out later," Dean said, turning his attention back to Crowley. "So what's the plan here? We lure this demon into a trap?"

"Actually, I was thinking that we rely on your latest paramour for that."

" _Bela_?" Dean and Sam looked at him in shock.

"Face facts; nobody on Lucifer's side is going to buy it for even a second if either of _you_ act like you've decided to turn all selfish on us at this stage of the proceedings," Crowley grinned. "But a woman who spent the last few years pre-Hell selling everything from hex bags to possessed statues for whatever cash she could get? _That_ we might buy."

"If you think we're going to-?"

"Maybe give her a call and give her the chance to turn me down?" Crowley cut Dean off with a nonchalant grin. "I'll give it a shot the other way if we have to, but there's no harm in trying the most obvious route…"

* * *

Bela could appreciate that her alleged 'morning sickness' had actually been fairly good by the usual standards of such a condition, but right now she felt like she was going to throw up. When Dean had contacted her to explain their latest plan to find the Horsemens' rings, she had initially rejected the idea of working with Crowley again after everything he'd put her through before she went to Hell, but after she'd learned the full details of the current plan, she'd been forced to concede that it was the best idea they had so far. She'd assured Sarah that she'd take every possible precaution, and had taken care to confirm that the wards around Sarah's flat were properly done up before Dean and Crowley came for her.  
  
She wasn't sure if she could channel the kind of self-centredness that had been part of her back when she'd done this for a living, but if it meant ensuring that her baby had a future, Bela was already determined to do what she could. She at least had the 'advantage' that she wasn't showing too obviously yet, so as long as she was careful and didn't wear anything too revealing, she shouldn't tip anyone off to the fact that she was pregnant and could pass herself off as just regressing back to her old habits, but if this had been for any other hunt with lower stakes…  
  
She wasn't sure what disturbed her more right now; that she was outside a building that she _knew_ was in control of  
  
"Demons?" Dean asked, Bela in the passenger seat and Crowley sitting behind them.  
  
"Nah; human shields," Crowley said. "The demons are up top; twelfth floor."  
  
"And how do we get in there?" Bela asked. "Sneak in through the back?"  
  
"You always make everything so complicated," Crowley said, shaking his head and disappearing from the back of the car. Dean barely had time to swear in frustration before his expression shifted to an angry glare as Crowley appeared behind one of the guards on the other side of the glass door and slit the man's throat. Swearing in rage, Dean leapt out of the car and ran for the building, Bela close behind him as Dean slammed his hands against the door.  
  
"Door's open," Crowley said as he stood nonchalantly behind the desk, bodies on the ground around him. "What?"  
  
"You killed them!" Dean yelled.  
  
"We're on a tight schedule," Crowley replied, still exasperatedly cool. "Come on; now you're squeamish?"  
  
"We'd prefer _not_ killing people when you could have just-!" Dean began.  
  
"Argue later," Crowley shook his head. "We're on a tight schedule facing high stakes, so get moving, m'dear."  
  
"All… fine," Bela nodded.  
  
"He just-!"  
  
"And I hate it too, but we don't have time to be picky," Bela cut Dean off, hoping she was giving him a sufficiently apologetic expression before she turned her attention back to the elevator, studying the door anxiously for a moment before she turned back to Dean. "Well… wish me luck?"  
  
"Always," Dean confirmed, looking as though he wanted to take her in his arms before he turned his attention back to Crowley and scowled at the demon. "And you're sure we can't go up there?"  
  
"Too many cooks, and they'll kill me soon as look at me," Crowley shrugged. "It's better this way."  
  
"I can do this," Bela nodded. "I made these kind of deals before, you know."  
  
Refusing to let herself consider the situation in depth, Bela took a deep breath and walked into the elevator, flexing her shoulders to try and help herself relax, fingers teasing the angel blade in her coat pocket; if she just focused on Crowley's proposed script, there was no reason that this _shouldn't_ work…  
  
As she walked out of the elevator, Bela moved promptly to the large door Crowley had described, giving the man standing there enough time to look at her with pitch-black eyes before she rammed the angel blade into his chest. As the demon's wound sparked and the enemy fell to the ground, Bela removed the blade and knocked on the double doors just behind. As soon as she knocked, the doors swung open, revealing a young man with blond hair in a dark suit with a yellow-and-blue-striped tie sitting at a desk at the other side of the room. The room was relatively empty apart from, a fancy desk and a leather-bound chair right in front of her and a shelf full of folders against one wall. Bela assumed that the full-wall windows behind the desk would offer a nice view if it wasn't totally dark outside, and she had to wonder if this demon had possessed the man to use his resources or had been keeping up this identity for a longer term.  
  
"Bela Talbot?" the young man said, one hand raised as though he'd just waved at something. "This _is_ a surprise…"  
  
"I like to keep my clients off-guard," Bela replied. "Less chance of being caught in a trap, you know?"  
  
"And I'm a client now?" the man asked. "I understood you were spending more time with the Winchesters…"  
  
"I was going with what seemed best for me at the time," Bela observed. "Right now… well, I'm hoping that I'll be able to save my own skin if I can do you a favour or two."  
  
"I see," the man said, indicating a seat on the other side of his desk  
  
"Well, down to business, then. What can I do for you?"  
  
"Actually, it's about what I can do for you," Bela explained.  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Dean and Sam have confronted the Horsemen of War and Famine already. As you probably know, they took the Horsemens' rings in the process."  
  
"I know," the demon nodded.  
  
"It occurred to me that I may be able to… earn a few points, shall we say?… if I offered you the opportunity to get them back."  
  
"Where are they?" the demon responded, offering a non-committed hum.  
  
"You don't think I was foolish enough to bring them with me, did you?" Bela countered with a smile. "I heard some rumours that you were interested in getting them back, and were willing to pay handsomely for it, so… with the obvious concession that you guarantee my safety after the Apocalypse kicks off in full, naturally… how much are we talking?"  
  
"Where are they?" the demon repeated.  
  
"I'll take you to them," Bela said; in any situation with a stubborn buyer, it was best to stick to the original term. "Once we're out of your little fortress here, we can… discuss terms."  
  
"Sensible," the demon nodded. "But who said I wanted them?"  
  
"What?" Bela said, raising a curious eyebrow.  
  
"Who… says… I want them?" the demon repeated  
  
"I… heard it from… assorted contacts…" Bela said tentatively, moving a hand to her chest to be ready to fight, wondering if Crowley had been tricked or was the actual trickster in this scenario.  
  
"See," the man observed, walking around the desk to sit opposite Bela, "War and Famine, even if we _could_ get the rings back on their bony fingers, I doubt it would do much good. They're withered husks since your boys took them off the board, lying fetal on the floor, all thanks to the Winchesters. Getting the rings won't change anything, but retribution can be very satisfying… and if I can't get my hands on the Winchesters, I'll settle for you as a consolation prize."  
  
As Brady thrust his hand forward, Bela had already pulled out Uriel's former blade to ram it into his wrist before he could generate the telekinetic assault he'd likely been planning. Lost for any better ideas now that Crowley's plan had fallen apart, Bela pulled out her blade and ran for the elevator, urgently slamming her fingers against the buttons as Brady came out of his office, eyes black and practically blazing with rage. As the doors closed, Bela leaned against the wall for a moment, taking advantage of the opportunity to rest, but when the door opened at the ground level to reveal Brady standing outside, she only just had time to raise the angel blade before Crowley had practically slammed a bag over the other demon's head.  
  
"Evening, uncle!" Crowley said mockingly, before he struck the demon in the head with a crowbar.  
  
"What the _Hell_ was that?" Dean glared at Crowley as he ran up to join the two, wrapping Bela in his arms.  
  
"That was perfect," Crowley responded.  
  
"Perfect?" Bela spat in outrage, not wanting to show too much weakness in front of Crowley. "This man didn't even _want_ the rings; he just let me make that pitch and then he started trying to kill me to get back at Dean and Sam-!"  
  
"Which was exactly what we needed to get him off-guard," Crowley grinned. "That ignorance and misinformation; completely authentic. You can't fake that; the plan went like clockwork."  
  
"You _put her life at risk_ -!" Dean spat, biting his lip before he said anything else.  
  
"That's what you get for working with a demon," Crowley shrugged, before he crouched down to tear the man's shirt open and carve a sigil into the other demon's chest.  
  
"This is just-!" Dean began.  
  
"Up yours, mate," Crowley responded coolly. "This bit of carving will tie our friend here down. No zapping off, no smoking out, locked in the meat suit; an important piece of our bargaining strategy."  
  
"Right…" Dean shook his head as he looked between Crowley and their new prisoner before he groaned in resignation. "OK, you got somewhere in mind we can interrogate this prick ASAP?"


	76. The Demon in the Old Friend

The thing that frustrated Dean the most about the current situation was that Crowley kept trying to insist he was still in control. Dean and Bela had each silently conceded to the situation when Crowley had marked a sigil on the demon's chest to stop it smoking out, and they'd each done what they could to stop the 'King of the Crossroads' from beating the host up more than was necessary to keep the guy unconscious, but they were currently torn between wanting to conduct the interrogation themselves and recognising that the personal assistant of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse was going to be a tough nut to crack.

"For the record, I'm against this, all right?" Crowley said as they walked into the abandoned house where Sam had agreed to wait for them.

"And I'm saying that we're not going to get anywhere if you want Dean to cut Sam out of this," Bela said firmly, keeping her hand tightly gripped on their prisoner. "If you know anything about the Winchesters, you need to understand that Sam and Dean are a package deal."

"Just don't blame me when this all goes wrong…" Crowley muttered.

"What?" Sam looked between the three as he walked out of a side room to join them.

"I reiterate that I'm completely against this," Crowley said. "Negotiating a high-level defection is _very_ delicate business."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.

"I begged Dean not to come back," Crowley insisted. "We should be _miles_ away from you-"

"And this isn't something we should be obsessing about," Bela cut him off. "Dean and I have faith in Sam."

"Sure, go ahead," Crowley shook his head. "It's only the bloody end of the world…"

"What are you talking about?" Sam repeated.

"Sam?" the demon said from under the hood. "Sam, is that you?"

"Brady?" Sam looked sharply at the hooded figure. Shaking his head in resignation at this latest twist, Dean yanked the hood off the demon's head, revealing the battered blonde face as their prisoner grinned at Sam.

"Oh, Brady hasn't been Brady for a long time," the demon smirked despite the blood streaking the right side of his face. "Not since… oh, middle of our sophomore year?"

Glancing over at Dean, Bela supposed she should appreciate that this turn of events was just as much a surprise for him as it was for her.

"That's right," Brady grinned mockingly at Sam. "You had a devil on your shoulder even back then. All right, now, let it all sink in…"

"You son of a bitch…" Sam responded as he stared at the smirking Brady in shock. "You introduced me to-!"

The younger Winchester paused, clenching his fists as he glared at the demon, face twisting in rage, before he turned to punch a wall and then walked away, shoulders tense in a manner that made it clear he was fighting to keep himself in check.

"Huh," Crowley mused. "That went… better than I expected."

"You underestimate us," Bela observed, privately amazed that she was this calm addressing Crowley on behalf of the Winchesters. "Sam's not going to compromise our chances of victory because you brought up some bad memories."

"Plus, he knows that there's only one way to win, and that means not killing this prick in the first five minutes," Dean said, indicating the still-trapped demon. "Now, get on with this and let's deal with this shit."

Bela wasn't sure how far they could trust Crowley, but she also knew that, right now, Crowley was probably the best person qualified to get anything out of this Brady guy; a demon wasn't going to listen to any kind of argument they could make that Lucifer might not have their best interests at heart, and she definitely wasn't going to let Dean tap into the part of himself that he'd used in Hell.

 _And here I was hoping that I'd be able to give up making deals with the demons now that I'm actively trying to_ save _lives rather than just line my pockets…_

* * *

Sam wasn't even sure why he was doing this when he was already thinking about his plan to stop Lucifer, but at the same time, he knew that he couldn't leave things with Sarah like this.  
  
He wasn't going to tell her about the plan to stop Lucifer until they knew for a fact that they could at least try to pull it off, but there were still a few other details he could talk with her about…  
  
"Hey," he said, as the phone line connected.  
  
" _Sam_?" Sarah's voice responded in surprise. " _What's wrong_?"  
  
"We've captured a demon who might be able to give us a lead on the Horsemen of the Apocalypse," Sam explained.  
  
" _But… that's a good thing, isn't it_?" Sarah replied.  
  
"I know him," Sam said, wanting to cut right to the key details. "Or… I know the host, anyway."  
  
" _You knew the host_?"  
  
"According to the demon, he's been using this guy as a host since sophomore year of college… and after that point, this guy's the one who introduced me to Jess."  
  
" _Oh_ ," Sarah said, clearly remembering the name. " _So now you're wondering… was any of that real_?"  
  
"And I just…" Sam sighed as he slumped into the chair. "It's not like I don't… you're _important_ to me, but Jess…"  
  
" _I get it, Sam_ ," Sarah said, and Sam was sure that she'd be smiling reassuringly at him if she'd been in front of him. " _Jess was a major part of your life; I can't expect you to just… turn it off when you're faced with something like this_."  
  
"Thanks," Sam smiled gratefully back at her. "Dean and Bela are dealing with the interrogation, but… well, I had to get out of there before I did something… I mean…"  
  
" _That's… fair_ ," Sarah said, she and Sam sitting in silence for a few moments before Sarah spoke again. " _So… this twist aside, how's the Horsemen hunt going_?"  
  
"We've got a few leads if this doesn't work out, but… well, we're dealing with a lot right now," Sam said. "We've even ended up working with a damn demon who's certain Lucifer's going to wipe them out on top of everything else…"  
  
" _And you're not sure if he's trustworthy_?"  
  
"We're not exactly in a position to be picky about our allies against these stakes, and his reasoning makes sense, but… after what happened last time I trusted a demon…"  
  
Sam trailed off, not wanting to relive that particular period of his life, relieved when Sarah just sat in silence at the other end of the line.  
  
In a sick way, Sarah's own experience losing her mother made it easier for her to talk about these kind of issues; they both knew that sometimes it was better to let someone work out their feelings over the deceased rather than just make them talk about it.  
  
"I'll let you know if anything big comes up, but just… be safe, OK?" Sam said at last.  
  
" _Thanks_ ," Sarah replied. " _I'm sorry I can't do anything else for you_."  
  
"You're available," Sam said. "That's… well, it's something I didn't have for a while."  
  
As he ended the call, Dean and Bela walked into the room, looking uncertainly at the other hunter.  
  
"What happened?" Sam asked.  
  
"Crowley spent some time talking with that Brady guy, but he couldn't make the prick crack," Dean said, sitting down opposite his brother. "He's gone off to try and find some other way to get what he's after, but no idea what he's actually up to."  
  
"Right," Sam said, deciding not to voice any thoughts on how frustrating that was; like he'd told Sarah, they weren't in a position to be picky about their allies, and Crowley's reasons for opposing Lucifer made sense. "So Brady's still alive?"  
  
"Body's taken too much of a beating for anyone to live through that even if we exorcised him, but the demon's still in residence if you want to… well…" Bela began, before shaking her head apologetically. "I'm sorry; that's probably-"  
  
"No," Sam shook his head as he stood up. "I… I need to know."  
  
Dean and Bela exchanged glances, but remained silent as Sam walked into the room where Brady was sitting in the chair, the body still battered and bloodstained but otherwise intact.  
  
"Well, here we go," Brady grinned in a bored tone. "We doing last words or no?"  
  
"Sophomore year, huh?" Sam said, moving around to stand in front of the demon.  
  
"Brady, here, he was a good kid; straight arrow," Brady responded, his tone still somewhat bored. "I mean, your best friend, really. Perfect point of access."  
  
"Thanksgiving?" Sam said.  
  
"Yes sir," Brady grinned back. "Remember when I came back from break all messed up? Dropped out of pre-med, the drugs, the bitches? That was the new Brady. That was me."  
  
Sam supposed he could almost be grateful that there was an actual explanation for the way Brady had 'freaked out' at that point; he'd spent months trying to help Brady get himself back together and never learned what had prompted his original breakdown…  
  
"Remember how much time you spent trying to get me back on the right track?" Brady continued mockingly. "You really were a good friend… But ol' yellow eyes didn't send me back to be your friend. No, we could tell we were starting to _lose_ you. You were becoming a mild-mannered, worthless sack of piss. Now, come on, we couldn't have that; you were our favorite."  
  
Listening to that, Sam suddenly wondered just how much Azazel had known about the long-term agenda for the Apocalypse. He could speculate that Azazel had an interest in him because of his apparent status as Lucifer's True Vessel, but had the other 'Special Children' just been chosen at random, or could they have been suitable vessels as well if one of them had lived? Was all that talk about how his relationship with Dean reflected Lucifer and Michael's dynamic that important in the grand scheme, or was it just a case of both sides using that detail since it was there?  
  
"So I hooked you up with a pure, sweet, innocent piece of tail," Brady continued, penetrating Sam's moment of thought. "And then I toasted her on the ceiling."  
  
Sam's momentary relief at the confirmation that Jessica had been real was curtailed by the revelation that he was looking at the being who had actually murdered her.  
  
"That's right," Brady grinned. "Azazel might have put the hit out on Jessica, but, _man_ , I got to have all the fun!"  
  
Sam fought down the part of himself that wanted to grab Ruby's knife at that news; they still needed whatever information this guy had…  
  
"You know, she thought we were friends, too?" Brady said, laughing as he spoke. "Let me right in. She was baking cookies… she was so surprised, so hurt when I started in on her-!"  
  
With the knowledge that this body had already taken too much damage to survive even if they tried to exorcise it, Sam drew the blade and rammed it into Brady's side, taking care to penetrate what he was fairly sure was the kidney; it would hurt, but it shouldn't be a fatal blow when the demon didn't even need to eat any more. Sam left the blade embedded in his old friend's body for a few moments before he withdrew it and walked away with a bitter glare, the demon letting out choked laughter in the process.  
  
It was probably a pointless bit of cruelty, but after Dean had killed Azazel for their mom, he felt that it was 'appropriate' on some level that he take some kind of shot against this guy for what he'd done to Jess.  
  
"Sam?" Dean looked anxiously at him as he walked out of the room. "Is Brady-?"  
  
"Still alive," Sam nodded at his brother. "It's… we still need him, right?"  
  
"According to Crowley, anyway," Dean nodded. "And believe me, after what that ass almost did to Bela, I don't like that either, but at least he seems to be on the level so far."  
  
"Bela?"  
  
"He sent her in to talk with that prick in his office and didn't give us the full picture so that she could basically lure him into a trap," Dean said bitterly. "She's fine, but-"  
  
"I'm not interested in talking about it," Bela cut him off, walking out of a door behind Dean to join the Winchesters. "We're all still here, and Johanna's safe; everything else isn't important."  
  
"Until we take Lucifer down, anyway," Dean said.  
  
"Well then," Crowley said as he walked into the house with a nonchalant grin, "guess it's a good thing I'm here to keep the ball rolling."  
  
"And what have you been doing with yourself?" Bela asked,  
  
"Dropped in on a demon nest and had a little massacre," Crowley said, simultaneously answering Bela's question and addressing Brady as he walked back into the room where they were keeping the demon trapped. "Except that I must be losing my touch, seeing as I let one of the little toads live. Oops. Also might have given said toad the impression that you left your post last night because you and I are- wait for it- lovers in league against Satan."  
  
"Ah," Bela nodded in new understanding as she joined the Winchesters in standing behind Crowley. "And I assume that would put Brady here close to the top of Hell's hit-list?"  
  
"Close enough," Crowley nodded, smirking at Brady. "Which means that you're destined for a very painful eternity unless you give us what we're after."  
  
"And I should just go with that?" Brady asked.  
  
"Maybe when you take into account that we're already getting in touch with a few friends to tell them about Niveus's connection with events?" Bela added with a grin.  
  
"What?" Brady asked.  
  
"Oh, we're not as dumb as you'd like to think we are," Bela said firmly. "If you want to take the chance that we can't handle Pestilence and Death the way we took down War and Famine, you're welcome to hope for the best, but take it from someone who's worked with Crowley before; he can spin _very_ convincing tales when you're in a desperate situation."  
  
Brady simply stared at them for a moment, but the way he was looking anxiously between the brothers and Bela suggested that they were making an impression…

* * *

Standing outside an alley a couple of hours later, Bela wasn't sure if she should consider it lucky that they'd escaped that hellhound Crowley's enemies had apparently sent after them, or if there was something else going on behind that particular close call. On the one hand, she knew better than most that hellhounds were hard to control- she'd done more than enough research on how to drive them off when she was trying to get out of her deal- but she found it somewhat questionable that Crowley would let his guard down enough to let a hellhound pursue him like that…  
  
"Yeah," Brady said, as he handed Crowley a piece of paper. "I'm sure Pestilence will be there. _Thanks_."  
  
"What do you think?" Dean asked as Crowley studied the address.  
  
"It's good," Crowley said as he passed the paper to Dean (to keep things simple, Dean was just going to assume that Crowley had worked out some kind of list of options where Pestilence was going but needed Brady's intel to confirm which one it was). "You got no reason to lie, have you? Like I said before, you're in my boat now."  
  
"You've screwed me for eternity," Brady spat scathingly at the other demon.  
  
"Won't live that long," Crowley shook his head as he stepped back, letting Sam move forward to glare at his former friend.  
  
"What is this?" Brady said, as Dean put together a quick salt-line behind Sam.  
  
"All those angels, all those demons, other sons of bitches… they just don't get it, do they Sammy?" Dean smirked.  
  
"No, they don't," Sam affirmed with a cool tone.  
  
"You see, Brady…" Dean said with a cool stare, "we're the ones you should be afraid of."  
  
"I bet this is a real moment for you, big boy," Brady said with contempt as Sam approached him with the knife. "Gonna make you feel all better?"  
  
"I'm working on it," Sam replied.  
  
"Is it gonna make up for all the times we yanked your chain?" Brady countered. "Azazel, Ruby, me; do you ever worry if it was just your fault for being gullible enough to trust us, or because we found our way into your blind spot? Maybe we just remind you of what you really are underneath all that? Maybe the only difference between you and a demon… is that your Hell's right here?"  
  
"I've thought that," Sam conceded. "But then I remember that there's one difference."  
  
With that, he plunged the blade into Brady's heart, cutting off Brady's laugh as the body let out the familiar sparks of a dying demon before Sam pulled it out and he slumped to the ground.  
  
"If I was the monster you people seem to want me to be," Sam said as he glared down at Brady's corpse, "I'd have drawn that moment out rather than making it quick."  
  
Looking at Sam as he walked away, Bela wondered how much of that reaction was based on having someone to remind him what he was fighting for outside of his family.  
  
She just hoped he wasn't going to do anything too reckless; ever since Gabriel had passed on that message about the rings, she finally felt like she had a clear plan for how she could use her 'immunity' to Lucifer against him…


	77. Seeking the Horsemen

"One thing's for sure," Deanna said as she looked over at the Winchesters, Bela, Ellen and Bobby, the older woman having chosen to stay with the Winchesters as they approached the 'endgame' for the Apocalypse. "When we find Pestilence, Bela is _not_ going in there with you."

"No argument there," Dean nodded.

"Quite," Bela said, placing one protective hand on her ever-expanding belly. "I'll… stay here and hold down the fort."

"So…" Sam said, looking tentatively between the group for a moment before he looked uncertainly at Dean. "On that topic, I… had an idea I wanted to run by everyone."

"What kind of idea?" Dean asked.

"About actually… _stopping_ Lucifer."

"Really?" Deanna smiled hopefully at Sam. "What is it?"

"Well…" Sam began, looking tentatively around the room. "I realised that… look, even if we can get the four rings together and open the portal back to the Cage, what are we going to do next? We can't exactly just shove Lucifer back into his box; we've barely even managed to get away from him the last couple of times we were face-to-face with him…"

"So we're not exactly going to be able to just throw him in when we can't even hit the bastard once," Bela nodded at Sam in acknowledgement.

"So what's your point?" Ellen asked.

"What if we get him to the edge… and _I_ jump in?"

Silence settled over the room at that statement.

"You're kidding me, right?" Dean glared at his brother. "Tell me you're fucking kidding me."

"No," Sam shook his head.

"Are you- you're seriously thinking of letting Lucifer take you as his vessel so that you can jump into _Hell_ with him?" Ellen spat at the younger Winchester. "God, even Jo was never that- you can't just-!"

"I'm not saying I'm _committed_ to it, but I… we have to face the facts here, right?" Sam said. "I already spoke with Bobby about it-"

"You _know_?" Dean glared at the man in the wheelchair.

"We discussed it," Bobby clarified with an awkward shrug. "Anyway, this ain't about me."

"You can't- this isn't an option, OK?" Bela looked urgently at Sam. "I am _not_ going to be the one to tell Sarah that you've condemned yourself to Hell for all eternity, even _if_ it's to save the world-"

"It's… I don't want to have to do this to her either, but what's the alternative?" Sam looked uncertainly at her. "We have to assume Adam's acting as Michael's vessel now, so how long until Lucifer stops trying to get me to say 'Yes' and decides to just get on with it in his current vessel? I'm open to other options, but-"

"Good, because you going to Hell _isn't_ an option, and that's final," Dean said resolutely, just before his phone rang. "This isn't over; hello?... _Cas_?"

"Castiel?" Bela looked more eagerly at Dean.

"We all thought you were dead," Dean said, as he adjusted his phone to speaker so that the others could hear the angel's words. "Where the hell are you, man?"

" _A hospital_ ," Castiel replied.

"Are you all right?" Bela asked.

" _No_ ," Castiel responded.

"What happened?" Ellen asked.

" _I just woke up here_ ," Castiel said in his usual bland manner. " _The doctors were fairly surprised. They thought I was brain-dead_."

"You're in a hospital?" Sam asked.

" _Apparently, after Van Nuys, I suddenly appeared, bloody and unconscious, on a shrimping boat off Delacroix_ ," the angel explained, sounding like he was wincing as he spoke. " _I'm told it upset the sailors_."

"Well… glad you're alive," Bela put in.

"And you're just in time," Dean smiled. "We figured out a way to pop Satan's box."

" _How_?"

"It's a long story, but look- we're going after Pestilence now, so if you want to zap over here-"

" _I can't 'zap' anywhere_."

"What do you mean?" Ellen asked curiously.

" _I believe Dean would say that my batteries are… drained_."

"You're out of angel mojo?" Dean asked, exchanging worried glances with the others; having Castiel back in the game could be risky if he had lost his remaining angelic powers.

" _I'm saying that I am thirsty and my head aches_ ," Castiel explained bitterly. " _I have a bug bite that itches no matter how much I scratch it, and I'm saying that I'm just incredibly_ …"

"Human?" Dean put in, receiving a solemn sigh from the phone. "Wow. Sorry."

" _Well, my point is_ ," Castiel continued, " _I can't go anywhere without money for...an airplane ride. And food. And more pain medication, ideally_."

"All right," Dean said. "Look, no worries; we'll wire you the cash and get you back here soon."

" _Thank you_ ," Castiel said solemnly, as he hung up the phone.

"Right," Bela looked around at the others. "I'll try and get in touch with Gabriel; maybe he can do something to help Cas get a bit of a boost before things get too dangerous."

"And you'll stay away from Serenity Valley, right?" Dean affirmed.

"We'll make sure of that," Ellen nodded. "Hell, I'll send her over to Jo's rehabilitation centre if that's what it takes."

"Rehabilitation centre?"

"She got her guts practically torn out; she needs a bit more time before she's ready to get back on her feet."

"Sorry about-" Sam began.

"We went in there knowing the risks, and Cas saved her ass; we're good, and she could probably do with some time to think about things," Ellen shook her head at the younger brother. "Just get out there and show Pestilence why you took down his brothers, OK?"

* * *

When he and Sam stood in Bobby's living room the following day, looking uncertainly at the ring they'd retrieved from the third Horseman, Dean had no idea how to feel about it.  
  
On the one hand, he wasn't exactly going to complain about the fact that they'd taken down another Horseman of the Apocalypse without losing anyone on their side, and Castiel had at least proved that he could still hold his own even if he was basically drained of his old angelic powers, but on the other hand…  
  
 _Three down, one to go, but still no_ real _idea how we're going to stop the bastard once we get to that point…_  
  
"Good to score a point for the home team, huh?" Bobby smiled, as Dean tossed the silver ring onto a map on the table in front of him.  
  
"Last thing Pestilence said was 'It's too late'," Sam said, still clearly unnerved at the memory of just how sick the Horseman had left him and Dean during the stand-off.  
  
"Did he say anything else?" Ellen asked.  
  
"No," Sam shook his head.  
  
"Could just be him being an arrogant dick," Deanna pointed out.  
  
"Or could be him hinting that he's left some kind of bomb lying around somewhere that's going to go off now that he's off the board," Dean muttered, before he glanced over at Bela and Castiel. "You're sure that Gabe can't do anything for-?"  
  
"In his current state, Gabriel's grace is too weak to restore my own, and he is uncertain if such a feat would be possible in any case," Castiel confirmed solemnly. "He may be capable of sparing the power to heal your own injuries if we need urgent assistance, but he would need to use such power carefully or risk compromising his own recovery, and he certainly cannot restore my grace to its original strength."  
  
"So not a good idea to bring him in for anything less than immediate life-or-death in case he ends up breaking something in himself all over again," Dean nodded in solemn understanding before he turned back to Bobby. "Well, we've been working on that principle for years… with that all said, please tell us you have actual good news."  
  
"Chicago's about to be wiped off the map," Bobby said solemnly. "Storm of the millennium. Sets off a daisy chain of natural disasters. Three million people are gonna die."  
  
"What?" Bela looked at Bobby in surprise.  
  
"I don't understand your definition of good news," Castiel observed from his position by Bobby's desk.  
  
"Well…" Bobby sighed. "Death- the Horseman- he's gonna be there. And if we can stop him before he kick-starts this storm, get his ring-"  
  
"Yeah, you make it sound so easy," Dean said sarcastically.  
  
"Hell, I'm just trying to put a spin on it."  
  
"And how do you know that anyway?" Bela asked, looking uncertainly at the junkyard owner.  
  
"I had, you know… help."  
  
"Don't be so modest," a familiar voice cut in. "I barely helped at all."  
  
"Crowley?" Bela looked back at where the king of the crossroad demons was standing nonchalantly in the middle of the kitchen, pouring himself a drink.  
  
"Bingo," Crowley grinned as he walked up to the door. "Pleasure to see you all, et cetera; go ahead, tell them, there's no shame in it."  
  
"Bobby?" Deanna looked uncertainly at the other man. "What is he talking about?"  
  
"World's gonna end," Bobby said, in a manner that reminded Bela of her own attitude in her last pre-Hell conversation with Dean. "Seems stupid to get all precious over one little… soul."  
  
"You sold your soul?" Dean repeated.  
  
"Oh, more like pawned it," Crowley put in. "I fully intend to give it back."  
  
"But not until we've defeated Lucifer and there's no reason for you to be hanging around us, correct?" Bela observed with a slight edge.  
  
"Bingo," Crowley nodded, waving an approving finger at her.  
  
"Did you kiss him?"  
  
"Sam!" Dean glared at the younger brother.  
  
"Just wondering."  
  
"No!" Bobby said, as the Winchesters looked thoughtfully at him before Crowley teasingly pulled out his phone to display a picture of Bobby kissing Crowley, the older man's eyes screwed shut in disgust while Crowley smirked at the camera. "Why'd you take a picture?"  
  
"Why do you have to use tongue?" Crowley retorted.  
  
"OK, let's deal with this _after_ Lucifer's back in his box," Bela said, placing a hand on Dean's shoulder as he turned towards Crowley. "I'm sure threatening our… associate… isn't a good move even if he _didn't_ have Bobby's soul as a bargaining chip."  
  
"Quite," Crowley grinned at her. "You sure you're content hanging around with this ape-?"  
  
"Desist," Castiel glared over at the demon.  
  
"We should move on to the next matter," Crowley grinned as he pulled out a newspaper and tossed it to Deanna. "This might be of interest to you."  
  
"Niveus Pharmaceuticals are rushing the delivery of their swine flu vaccine to stem the outbreak?" the older woman read. "I assume this is how the demons are going to distribute that… croatoan virus Dean's told us about? Pestilence distributed the swine flu and then Niveus released the vaccine to spread croatoan?"  
  
"Looks like the smart gene skipped the latest generation, mmm?" Crowley grinned at Deanna.  
  
"Do that again and I _will_ see what happens when we stab a demon in the crotch."  
  
"Touché," Crowley nodded at the woman before he turned back to the others. "The point is that we have targets; Dean-o and I can get the ring while you all handle things at Niveus."  
  
"That's… fair enough," Bela nodded, even as she resigned herself to another period in confinement; if Dean wouldn't want her coming along to face Pestilence, there was no way she would be joining him when he faced Death, and there was certainly no way she'd be participating in the planned assault on Niveus…  
  
 _On the other hand_ , Bela reflected as she fought down the urge to smile, _if I can get Bobby out of the way for that one, this might be a good time to prepare for my own little plan_.


	78. The Most Terrifying Pizza

Standing in the junkyard behind Bobby's house, watching as Bobby talked with Castiel about how to use a gun, Bela couldn't stop herself smiling at the sight. She appreciated that the situation wasn't 'funny' by any definition, and she sincerely hoped that Castiel would be able to hold his own in the end, but there was still something darkly amusing about seeing the angel so out of his depth…

"Well," Dean said, looking over at Sam, Castiel and Ellen with a grim smile. "Good luck stopping the whole zombie apocalypse."

"Good luck killing Death," Sam responded, before he shook his head with a bemused smile. "You remember when we used to just… hunt wendigos? How simple things were?"

"Not really," Dean observed, before grinning over at Deanna and Bela. "But hey, if everything had stayed simple, we wouldn't have these girls here."

"Girls?" Deanna countered with a raised eyebrow and a nonchalant grin. "Is that any way to talk to your grandmother?"

"On the topic of dealing with weird shit," Crowley put in as he handed Dean a small scythe, "you'll be needing this; Death's own."

"Capable of killing everything, I take it?" Bela asked as she looked at the weapon in Dean's hands.

"Demons, angels, reapers, and rumour has it, the very thing itself."

"How did you get that?" Castiel cut in.

"Hello; King of the Crossroads," Crowley grinned. "So shall we? Bobby, you just gonna sit there?"

"No, I'm gonna riverdance," Bobby retorted with a bitter sarcasm.

"I suppose if you want to impress the ladies," Crowley shrugged, grinning as the group stared at him; personally Bela wondered if Crowley was just trying to remind them that he was a demon and thus a complete dick. "Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, you _really_ wanted that crossroads deal? Fact; you get more if you phrase it properly, so I took the liberty of adding a teeny little sub-a-clause on your behalf."

"Wait a minute…" Bela looked at Crowley. "Are you saying that you-?"

"I'm an altruist," Crowley grinned. "Just gonna sit there?"

As Bobby carefully moved his legs, stepping out of his chair for the first time in almost a year, Bela clenched her fists in her jacket pocket. She wasn't fool enough to believe that Crowley had actually done this in some spirit of altruism- most likely he'd just given Bobby his legs back to stop any of them just trying to break the contract so it wouldn't cost Bobby his legs all over again- but at least this gave Bobby the ability to get back in the game rather than stay on the side.

"Right then," she said, after the older male hunter had awkwardly thanked the King of the Crossroads for his restored legs, "I'll just wait here and hold the fort, shall I?"

"You aren't coming along?" Crowley looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"If you expect me to believe that my former father knew why I'd be staying out of this and you don't, you're not as connected as you want us to think you are," Bela pointed out.

"Touché," Crowley grinned.

"And if you even _think_ -" Dean began as he raised the scythe in Crowley's direction.

"You really think I'd do anything to a baby?" Crowley looked at the eldest Winchester with what seemed to be a genuinely wounded expression. "I'm evil, but I'm not sadistic; where's the point in doin' anything to drag a kid into Hell?"

"Just remember that," Bobby said, eyes narrowing as he looked at Crowley. "If you change your mind, I don't give a crap 'bout my legs if it keeps that kid safe from you."

"Understood," Crowley raised his hands with a smile. "Hands off the kid post-Apocalypse; no problem."

"Good," Bela joined the others in glaring over at Crowley. "Because be assured, I will _never_ let anything that would hurt my daughter live."

* * *

"Let's stop for pizza."  
  
"Pizza?" Deanna glared at Crowley as Dean sat in silence in the driver's seat; after spending the last few hours driving to Chicago with the King of Hell riding shotgun, neither of them were feeling particularly patient with his smug attitude. "Are you serious?"  
  
"I heard good things," Crowley grinned. "Right now, you want to keep an eye on that big building up there."  
  
"Death's there?" Dean asked. "How do you know?"  
  
"Block's squirming with reapers," Crowley grinned. "I'll be right back."  
  
The demon disappeared from his seat, but then reappeared a moment later. "Boy, is my face red; Death's not in there."  
  
"Not in there?" Deanna glared at the demon king. "You dragged us into a city that's about to destroyed, and _now_ you don't know where Death is?"  
  
"Signs pointed," Crowley observed. "I'm just as shocked as you are."  
  
"After Bobby sold his _soul_ to help you track this guy down?" Dean protested.  
  
"Relax," Crowley  
  
"All deals are soul back or store credit; we'll catch Death in the next-"  
  
"We'll catch him _here_ ," Deanna cut him off, drawing Ruby's old knife and holding it to Crowley's neck with a warning glare. "We are _not_ leaving this city to get destroyed, so you are _going_ to find Death for us."  
  
"I'll… see what I can do," Crowley grinned awkwardly at the woman. "Just… give me a moment."  
  
The demon vanished from the car again, leaving Dean and Deanna to look uncomfortably at each other before the car suddenly jolted, leaving the Impala on the side of a street further in the city. The two hunters barely had time to look around before they saw Crowley standing in front of a pizzeria a few doors down, staring solemnly at it for a moment before he turned to look at the Impala with a particularly pointed stare.  
  
"Death's there?" Dean glanced at his grandmother.  
  
"That seems likely," Deanna nodded at him. "You're sure that-?"  
  
"Only got one scythe," Dean indicated the weapon in his hand as he reached for the car door, pausing to look back at the older woman. "If I don't come back…"  
  
"Your daughter will know," Deanna smiled at him.  
  
With that tentative exchange, Dean swallowed and headed for the pizzeria, walking cautiously through the door after a brief glare from Crowley was enough to confirm that the demon wouldn't be joining him for this particular stage. The sight of what looked like a dead waitress behind the cover was far from encouraging even before he saw the diners slumped over another table, but he cautiously made his way further into the restaurant, until he saw a figure sitting solemnly in the middle of the room, dressed all in black. Dean moved towards the table as quietly as possible, but a strange building heat in his hand forced him to drop the weapon before he could actually use it.  
  
"Thanks for returning that," the black-clad figure observed coolly, the scythe now lying on the table beside the other man. "Join me, Dean. The pizza's delicious. Sit down."  
  
With nothing else to do, Dean moved forward, fighting the urge to scream before he took a seat opposite Death. Face-to-face, the Horseman put Dean more in mind of War than the other two; where Famine and Pestilence had actually looked hungry and sick, Death looked thin and pale, but only in the sense of a man who didn't eat much or see the sun that often, rather than looking like he was on the verge of death.  
  
"Took you long enough to find me," Death said, cutting away at a piece of pizza pie. "I've been wanting to talk to you."  
  
"I got to say…" Dean said, unsure where he should take this particular conversation; of all the scenarios he'd envisioned, being alive the minute after Death disarmed him hadn't been high on the list. "I have mixed feelings about that. S-so is this the part where… where you kill me?"  
  
"You have an inflated sense of your importance," Death said, taking a sip of a drink. "To a thing like me, a thing like you, well...Think how you'd feel if a bacterium sat at your table and started to get snarky. This is one little planet in one tiny solar system in a galaxy that's barely out of its diapers. I'm old, Dean. Very old. So I invite you to contemplate how insignificant I find you."  
  
When Death put it that way, Dean decided not to say anything about his grandmother unless Death directly brought it up; they hadn't exactly 'cheated' Death by saving her, but it probably wasn't worth talking about it.  
  
"Eat," Death indicated the pizza, placing a piece on the plate in front of him. Lost for a better response, Dean took a bite of the offered slice, unsure if it would be fatal or not up to the point where he put it in his mouth. "Good, isn't it?"  
  
"Well… I got to ask," Dean looked curiously at Death; if he was in this position, it could be interesting to get a few answers to the big questions. "How old are you?"  
  
"As old as God," Death responded, turning his attention back to the food. "Maybe older. Neither of us can remember anymore. Life, death, chicken, egg. Regardless… at the end, I'll reap him, too."  
  
"God?" Dean said. "You'll reap God?"  
  
"Oh yes," Death replied. "God will die, too, Dean."  
  
"Well…" Dean said. "This is way above my pay grade."  
  
"Just a bit."  
  
"So, then why am I still breathing, sitting here with you? W-what do you want?"  
  
"The leash around my neck… off," Death answered. "Lucifer has me bound to him. Some unseemly little spell. He has me where he wants, when he wants. That's why I couldn't go to you; I had to wait for you to catch up. He made me his weapon. Hurricanes, floods, raising the dead. I'm more powerful than you can process, and I'm enslaved to a bratty child with a temper tantrum."  
  
"He's… Lucifer's actually that much younger than you?" Dean asked, suddenly curious. "I mean… is Darwin right, or is it the Bible?"  
  
"Six of one, half a dozen of the other," Death shrugged. "Life evolved as science records, but God gave it the shove to develop spiritually, rather than just exist, a few thousand years back."  
  
"OK…" Dean said, filing that point away for later discussion with his family before he decided to confront the more immediate topic. "So… if you're bound to Lucifer… why are we just talking?"  
  
"You can help me take the bullets out of Lucifer's gun," Death explained, as he held up his right hand with the white-gemmed ring on it. "I understand you want this? I'm inclined to give it to you."  
  
"In exchange for what?" Dean asked.  
  
"Insightful," Death nodded at him.  
  
"I've been dating a thief who specialised in supernatural artefacts for the last couple of years; you get used to understanding deals with that kinda experience," Dean observed. "So what's the deal, and what about-?"  
  
"Chicago?" Death finished, with a thoughtful shrug as he took the ring off. "I suppose it can stay… I like the pizza. All you have to do… is whatever it takes to put Lucifer back in his cell."  
  
"Of course."  
  
"Whatever it takes."  
  
"That's the plan."  
  
"No plan," Death shook his head slightly. "Not yet. Your brother is your best chance to stop Lucifer."  
  
"You think-?"  
  
"I know," Death cut Dean off. "I need a promise. You're going to let your brother jump right into that fiery pit. Do I have your word?"  
  
"…OK, yeah," Dean said.  
  
"That had better be 'yes', Dean; tricking time is one thing, but cheating me is another matter entirely," Death said, with a particularly intense stare in his eyes as he held out the ring. "Now, would you like the instruction manual?"  
  
Dean had no idea if this was good or bad, but as Death started to explain exactly _how_ the four rings would re-open the Cage, he decided to focus on the immediate goal; Sam wasn't exactly stupid, but he just couldn't accept that _this_ was the only way out…

* * *

The drive back to the salvage yard was silent, Deanna looking at her grandson in contemplation while Dean wasn't sure if he wanted to ignore the slight weight in his pocket or focus on the fact that he'd actually met with Death and survived. When they reached Bobby's house, Bela was alone, but she'd confirmed that the others had survived the assault on Niveus and were coming back in safety. They had almost missed the vaccine being deployed, but an impulsive assault had managed to turn the tables on the demons and the Croatoan-infected employees quickly enough, while Sam had even managed to retrieve a few civilians from the warehouse.  
  
 _OK, so Cas confirmed that Adam's now in the game as Michael's meatsuit, and I_ really _don't want to think about the demon blood factor, but if we're going to work with that…_  
  
"And that's it?" Bela looked at the four rings lying on the table in front of them, War's ring in the centre while the other three latched on to it in a triangular pattern, their gemstones pointing inwards. "This and a spell, and… we're done?"  
  
"Should probably give Gabe a ring to be sure what to expect, but yeah, that's it," Dean said, carefully picking up his beer bottle as he sat beside Bela, his own gaze fixed on the rings even as his ears heard the others talking further down the yard. "One problem solved… now there's just the whole part where we have to let Sam condemn himself to Hell for all eternity to save the world."  
  
"You don't think you can do that?"  
  
"I think we all know that when it comes to a choice between family and the rules, Winchesters always end up at least trying to break the rules," Dean said, reaching over to pull Bela towards him, giving her a brief kiss before he turned back to study the rings. "But on the other hand… Sam's right; we don't have a _better_ plan, and if Sam's making the choice…"  
  
"You can't protect him forever, huh?"  
  
"Not when I've got something else to start keeping an eye on." Dean placed a hand on Bela's stomach, unsure if he felt something move under his hand or if he was just over-thinking things.  
  
"You do know that if you turn into an over-protective dad that girl _is_ going to kick you when she gets old enough?" Bela smiled. "With all those stubborn Winchester genes…"  
  
"Like you're not going to give her a good share of stubborn yourself?"  
  
"Touché," Bela grinned, leaning over to give Dean a brief peck on the lips before she looked at him more seriously. "You think he can do this?"  
  
"For what it's worth," Bobby put in as he walked over to join them, a grim smile on the older hunter's face, "I think he could pull it off."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Look," Bobby said, looking solemnly between his foster son and the woman he was starting to consider a daughter, "if Death thinks Sam should say 'Yes'… I mean, think of that kind of bird's-eye view."  
  
"I get that he says he doesn't _want_ to work for the winged dick, but if this doesn't work…"  
  
"And what if it does?" Bobby countered. "I mean, I'm not sayin' that Sam ain't an ass-full of character defects, but… back at Niveus, I watched that kid pull out one civilian after another, saving ten people and never stoppin, never slowin' down. Sarah an' Deanna've helped him calm his confidence issues, but that kid's been runnin' into burnin' buildings since he was, what, twelve?"  
  
"Pretty much," Dean conceded; it certainly sounded like the time John Winchester had started to let Sam accompany them on hunts, anyway.  
  
"I get that he's had his dark moments, but he's also had a lotta good in 'im too," Bobby affirmed. "If anyone's gonna beat the Devil… well, if Sam can't do it, he'll die tryin', and that's the best we could ask for right now."  
  
Glancing over at Bela, Dean wondered what the woman was thinking when she looked at him in that strangely contemplative manner, her fingers flexing as though she was imagining holding on to something, but soon decided it wasn't worth asking her about; he trusted that Bela would tell him what she was thinking if the opportunity came up.  
  
Right now, he had to face the point Bobby was trying to make; if the choice was to lose the world or lose Sam, they had to at least take the chance that the second option would work.


	79. Saying Yes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: If anyone's interested, my friend and fellow author Michael Weyer has put together a [TV Tropes page](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/TheCorruptedInnocent) for this fic; feel free to check it out and make any additions you feel appropriate.
> 
> AN 2: For the record, we're in the home stretch now; I plan to conclude this story within the next few chapters, including a 'feature-length' epilogue that I hope you'll all find interesting…

Looking at Sam as he sat on the front of the Impala in the back of Bobby's junkyard, sipping a beer and staring up at the sky, Dean wondered what it said about him that he was going to do this.

He hated the idea that the only option open to them right now would basically condemn his brother to Hell, but it wasn't like they had a better option right now. They'd spent months pouring over every book in Bobby's house or that Campbell compound Deanna had found for them and failed to come up with any better ideas than Gabriel's suggestion to use the Horsemens' rings, and now he had that deal with Death hanging over him…

_If I don't do this soon, he'll go after Johanna._

Dean didn't know if Lucifer would actually go that far- in his own sick way, the father of all demons hadn't actually done anything to directly hurt anyone Sam cared about- but there was no way Dean was going to put his daughter at risk if he didn't have to. As much as he loved his brother, he had a duty as a father to take into account as well, and if letting things stand meant putting his unborn little girl in the line of fire…

"I'm in," he said, walking up to stand beside his brother.

"In?" Sam repeated.

"The whole 'up with Satan' thing," Dean clarified. "I'm on board."

"You're gonna let me say yes?" Sam sat up, looking at Dean in surprise.

"No," Dean clarified. "That's the thing. It's not on me to let you do anything. You're a grown… well, overgrown… man. If this is what you want, I'll back your play."

"That's the last thing I thought you'd ever say," Sam sighed.

"Could be," Dean said. "I'm not gonna lie to you and say I like this; I've been watching out for you for so long…"

"But you've got someone else to watch out for now," Sam finished for him, as the two brothers shared a brief smile. "Bela… she's been good for you."

"Just like Sarah's been good for you, huh?" Dean replied, clinking their bottles together before they each took a sip. "Point is, we've each got other people to look out for right now… and we've each got to take risks to keep them safe. I don't know if we have a snowball's chance of pulling it off… but if anyone can do this, it's you."

"Thanks," Sam nodded.

"If this is… you sure you want to do this?"

"'Want' is a strong word," Sam smiled slightly bitterly. "Do I want to sacrifice the chance to have a relationship with a smart, beautiful, courageous woman who knows what I do and doesn't constantly freak out about it in favour of spending eternity in Hell with Lucifer? _Hell_ no. Do I want to risk her living in a world where the apocalypse has taken place? Even _more_ Hell no." The younger Winchester shook his head resolutely. "I broke the final lock; I've got to put him back in his box."

"Right," Dean nodded, before he indicated his phone. "Heard anything from Cas and the girls?"

"They'll getting things together," Sam said, his tone even grimmer. From Castiel's explanation, they all knew that Sam was going to need a considerable amount of demon blood to have any chance of even hosting Lucifer in the first place, which meant that they needed to stock up before they actually approached the Devil. Bobby was doing research on likely locations where they could make contact with Lucifer while Bela performed summoning rituals so that Castiel and Deanna could drain the blood from the demons.

_Not a pretty plan, but we just have to hope we only get the big guns who've been there for so long that the meatsuits'd be dead even if we weren't draining them dry…_

He hated how they were having to make these kind of compromises, but if this was what it took to ensure that his daughter would _never_ see him do this kind of thing in a few years' time…

* * *

Even after Bobby gave them the list of possible omens for Lucifer's location, Dean still couldn't believe he was doing this.  
  
Worst of all, he wasn't sure if he was more shocked at himself for going along with this plan in the first place, or because he was going to lose at least one person close to him no matter how this turned out. Either Sam said 'Yes' to Lucifer and managed to trap the Devil back in the Cage, or this plan wasn't going to work out and they were all going to get killed when the Apocalypse kicked off in full. The knowledge that it was basically 'all or nothing' was the only reason he had agreed to let Bela come along when she insisted on joining them, even if Deanna and Bobby had agreed to stay behind to alert the second line of defence if this plan didn't work out; as Bela had pointed out, they were screwed if this didn't work, and if it worked she wanted to be there at the end just like she'd been there at the start.  
  
Was it totally wrong of him to feel slightly happy that Bela and Cas were sleeping in the back seat? Maybe the angel was basically out of juice at this point and he was going to make sure Bela didn't get _any_ closer to Lucifer than she absolutely had to, but after the last year, he knew that he wouldn't want anyone else at his back as they prepared to make this final stand.  
  
"Detroit," he said at least, lost for anything else to say that wouldn't be an obvious attempt at deflection. "You got a bad feeling about this?"  
  
"You'd have to be nuts to have a _good_ feeling about this-" Sam observed.  
  
"You know what I mean," Dean cut Sam off. "Detroit… he always said he'd jump your bones in Detroit. Here we are."  
  
"Here we are," Sam conceded.  
  
"Maybe this is him rolling out the red carpet, you know? Maybe he knows something that we don't."  
  
"Dean, I'm sure he knows a buttload we don't," Sam said, indicating the two sleeping figures behind them. "The only one of us who can keep anything from him for certain is Bela, and we still don't know the limits of that… so all we can do is hope that Gabriel's right and he doesn't know about the rings."  
  
"I know…" Dean shook his head in frustration.  
  
"On that subject," Sam continued, "there's something I gotta talk to you about."  
  
"What?"  
  
"This thing goes our way, and I… Triple Lindy into that box… Y-you know I'm not coming back."  
  
"I'm aware," Dean affirmed, not wanting to explore that in depth.  
  
"So you've got to promise me two things."  
  
"OK," Dean said tentatively. "Anything."  
  
"Look after Sarah… and don't try and get me back."  
  
"What?" Dean looked sharply at his brother. "I'll keep an eye on Sarah, but I didn't sign up for-"  
  
"Dean-"  
  
"Your Hell is gonna look like my Graceland, and Bela… we can't just let you-!"  
  
"Once that Cage is shut, you can't go poking at it, Dean; it's too risky," Sam said solemnly.  
  
"You really think we're just gonna let you rot there?" Dean said. "You have someone-!"  
  
"And Sarah has a chance to have a good life, the same as you," Sam said. "It's been… the last few months with her have been… but it's more important that she has a happy life than that I'm the one to give it to her. We can't risk letting Lucifer out again; once I'm in there, that Cage has to stay locked."  
  
"And what am I supposed to do?"  
  
"Raise that kid with Bela, have barbeques and go to ballet recitals-"  
  
"Hey, Johanna is _not_ going to do freakin' _ballet_ -!"  
  
"You'll work it out," Sam smiled. "You'll all go and live some normal, apple-pie life, Dean. Promise me… and promise me you'll make sure Sarah has the same chance."  
  
"…I promise," Dean nodded.  
  
He'd hate having to leave Sam in Hell for Eternity, but he couldn't become like John Winchester and put revenge over his kid. His dad may have been able to argue he was taking him and Sam along to protect them from the thing that killed Mom, but once the Apocalypse was over Dean would have options, and as far as he was concerned, he wasn't going to put Johanna in harm's way if he could find somewhere safe for them to live as a family.  
  
 _Who'd have thought it? I had to go to Hell and back to find that the woman I wanted to kill a couple of years ago was the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with…_

* * *

Even knowing that it was part of the plan, Dean wished that he could have persuaded Bela to stay back when they went to confront Lucifer, even as he knew from experience that talking her out of anything was an exercise in futility. Bobby had stayed behind to keep an eye on the Impala, but after Sam had drunk the demon blood they'd collected before making their final approach, they were left with nothing more than a wing and a prayer that their last gambit would pay off. Letting the demons capture them was one thing, but now that they were actually face-to-face with Lucifer…  
  
"Hey guys," Lucifer said, red sores on his exposed skin, staring nonchalantly out of the window. "So nice of you to drop in."  
  
He turned around to breathe on a nearby window pane, drawing a pitchfork in the condensation.  
  
"Sorry if it's a bit chilly," the Devil said. "Most people think I burn hot; it's actually quite the opposite."  
  
"Well, I'll alert the media," Dean said, falling back on his usual defiance.  
  
"Help me understand something, guys… and girl," Lucifer said, turning around and looking condescendingly at Bela. "I mean, stomping through my front door is… a tad suicidal, don't you think?"  
  
"We're not here to fight you," Sam responded.  
  
"No?" Lucifer looked curiously at Sam. "Then why are you here?"  
  
"I want to say 'yes'."  
  
"Excuse me?" Lucifer asked.  
  
In response, Sam took a deep breath and closed his eyes, and the two demons behind them dropped dead in flashes of light. Lucifer had just opened his mouth to respond when Bela pulled something out of her jacket and fired directly into Lucifer's head. The fallen angel fell back to hit the wall, but Bela walked up to the body and fired five more shots, the Devil's body glowing and sparking with each bullet.  
  
"What-?" Dean began, before Bela turned around to display the Colt in her hand.  
  
"He's down," she clarified with a brief grin, before looking firmly over at Dean and Sam. "Now open that portal!"  
  
Nodding in understanding despite his anxious expression, Dean took the rings out of his pocket and threw them at the wall.  
  
" _Bvtmon… Tabges… Babalon_ ," he said, tensing for a moment as the portal opened, the wall suddenly collapsing in on itself as though some kind of black hole had just appeared behind it, a loud wind filling the room as the plaster collapsed further in on itself. Grabbing Lucifer's fallen body by the arms, Dean and Castiel lifted him up and hurled him towards the portal, the limp vessel vanishing into the black void on the other side. There was a brief flash of light, and then the wall had been restored to normal, leaving no sign that there had ever been any portal there in the first place.  
  
More importantly, as far as Dean was concerned, Lucifer was gone and Sam was still on Earth and in control of his body…  
  
 _How the_ Hell _did that happen_?


	80. Archangels Reunited

"So… what _exactly_ just happened?" Dean looked uncertainly at Bela, after a few seconds standing silently in the apartment confirmed that nobody else was going to come after them.

"My plan," Bela smiled as she held up the Colt once again. "We knew from our experience in Carthage that the Colt could put Lucifer down for a moment even if it couldn't stop him for good, and we also knew that he couldn't read my mind because of my whole 'unbroken Seal' thing. Ever since Carthage, I had this idea that I could keep the Colt on me to put Lucifer out of action the next time we really needed to stop him, but the problem was finding the right moment when putting the Devil down for a few seconds would actually do us some good, especially when I'd probably only get away with doing it once."

"Until we knew about the rings…" Sam smiled at Bela with new understanding.

"Bingo," Bela nodded at Sam. "I couldn't tell you about it, of course, but once I knew that there was a way to get him out of the picture, so long as we could get the rings together, the only challenge was getting close to Lucifer without anyone else wondering why I was doing this… well, in this condition, anyway."

"Yeah…" Dean began awkwardly.

"Dean," Bela looked at him with a firm stare. "I _love_ our daughter; you have to believe that I'd only do this if I genuinely thought it was the only way to ensure she'd have a world to grow up in."

"Nobody is judging you for taking the only option available to you in a desperate situation, Bela," Castiel said, smiling reassuringly at her. "We had no better plan, and your-"

He reeled forward and let out a strangled yell as a blade suddenly emerged from his stomach, before being withdrawn in a spray of blood. As Castiel fell to the ground, Dean, Sam and Bela were only slightly shocked to see Adam Milligan standing there, a cool expression on his face that made it clear their half-brother wasn't the one in charge.

"You…" he glared around at the three humans, flexing his fingers around his weapon.

"Michael, right?" Dean cut in with a weak attempt at his usual disarming smile. "Gotta say, not a fan of the new look; at least you looked intimidating when you were in Dad."

"This should not have been your concern, Dean Winchester; you ceased to be a part of this story when you rejected your role," Michael glared at his would-have-been vessel. "Where is my brother?"

"Back in his Cage," Sam retorted, his fists clenched as he glared at Michael. "We stopped your damn apocalypse, so just say thanks and-"

"You seek to thwart my father's plan and expect me to be grateful?" Michael countered bitterly, stepping over Castiel's fallen form as though he was an irrelevance, leaving the three humans to cautiously back away. "It was written that Lucifer and I would fight to ensure the coming of Paradise for mankind-"

"With a fifty-fifty shot at that for the rest of the world or eternal agony for the same if you lost; I'll take the certainty of the status quo over those odds with those stakes," Dean retorted. "Seriously, is this actually about _helping_ anyone or just going along with the damn plan?"

"After what Lucifer would do to your souls-"

"Yeah, I'm not gonna deny he's a dick, but have you ever bothered to find another way beyond planning to beat the crap out of him?" Dean countered, even as he moved to stand between Michael and Bela; he probably couldn't do more than buy her a few seconds, but anything that gave Bela and Johanna a few more seconds of life was good for him right now. "I mean, when you get down to it, are you fighting him for any reason other than that it was written that you'd slug it out?"

"He corrupted human souls-"

"Again, not denying that he's a dick, but how are you any better?" Dean looked coolly at the archangel in his half-brother. "You both spent millennia preparing for this fight just because you've always been told you'll fight, but do you actually have a real _plan_ for what you're going to do after that? OK, you'll bring in paradise or Lucifer'll destroy everything, but there's got to be some kind of middle ground that doesn't involve smashing everything else?"

"Your life and Sam's life has been part of a plan beyond your comprehension, building towards this moment-"

"Because somehow we're you guys on a human scale or something like that?" Sam put in with a bitter glare. "Yeah, maybe Dean's the loyal son and I'm the rebellious one, but you know what the difference is? I was willing to apologise and go back, and Dean was willing to tell Dad where he could get off if he got an order he _really_ didn't like; you and Lucifer both just… went along with everything!"

" _Bingo_!" another voice said, the group spinning around to find Gabriel standing nonchalantly against the wall, hands in his pockets as he grinned at the assembled Winchesters. "And that's why you're better than us; you're willing to go against expectations."

"Gabriel?" Michael looked at the other archangel in surprise. "I understood-"

"That Lucifer killed me?" Gabriel shook his head, leaning down to place his hand against Castiel's leg, looking sorrowfully at the younger angel before he stood back up. "Nah, just faked it after a bad knock until I was ready to get back in the game and see if you'd be more open to reason than Lucy was."

"This was Father's plan; it cannot be thwarted by-"

"And yet we had to jump through _this_ many hoops to get here?" Gabriel shook his head pityingly. "Lucifer got literally shot down by one girl, who managed to upturn two whole prophecies just by being back on Earth, and now you're going to try and dig Lucifer back _out_ of that box all over again?"

"You would defy Father's plan?" Michael looked coolly at Gabriel. "Have you fallen so far?"

"I got out of Heaven because I wanted to stay away from the fighting, but I've realised something hanging around here," Gabriel replied nonchalantly. "We're supposed to _serve_ humans, Michael; if we're going to kill them because they're sinful, might as well destroy ourselves for that particular sin, considering that it's not like any of us are perfect."

"Quite," Castiel affirmed, suddenly sitting up from his prone position on the floor with an unmarked shirt and jacket; Dean nearly moved to help his friend before a subtle head-shake from Gabriel prompted him to stop. "The world may end some day, Michael, but if we force it in this manner, we prove ourselves no better than Lucifer, attempting to force our view upon the world because we do not like what faces us."

"I merely respond to Lucifer's actions-"

"And yet your forces would have us send the Winchesters back through time to ensure that everything worked out?" Castiel said, getting back to his feet and flexing his shoulders as he looked grimly at Michael. "You proclaim that you are in some way better than Lucifer when your forces would abuse and manipulate human lives to achieve your goals just as he twisted their souls to make a point to our Father?"

"It is not the same-"

"That would be what we call 'distinction without a difference', Michael," Bela cut in with a cool glare. "And right now you're coming dangerous close to going against the terms of your deal with Adam, or was he lying about wanting to keep my daughter safe?"

"…No," Michael conceded, actually looking ashamed for a moment before he looked at the humans with new focus. "But the prophecies-"

"Will come to pass in Father's time, but we cannot force it," Castiel cut him off. "We have resorted to deception, manipulation, and even time travel to arrange things as we believe; if this was truly the will of God, would it not have simply happened regardless of our own efforts? Would we have been forced to go to such lengths if this was what our Father wanted?"

There was a long silence in the room for the next few moments, until Michael turned to Gabriel.

"Would you fight me?"

"Not for the Apocalypse," Gabriel said solemnly. "But I'd fight for the humans."

"As would I," Castiel said, moving to stand beside his elder brother.

"Please, bro," Gabriel looked earnestly at Michael, the former Trickster looking rarely serious. "Don't make us keep doing this."

Michael looked at him in silence for a few moments, before he bowed his head.

"You have chosen your side and prevailed over the rules we have followed for so long," the first archangel said, turning to look around the room. "I will… you have given me much to think on."

"And we'll give you the time to do that, so long as you're not going to let anybody open up that Cage again any time soon," Gabriel jerked a thumb towards the wall where the Cage had been opened just a few moments ago.

"No," Michael shook his head, before looking over at Dean and Sam. "I shall restore Adam Milligan to you."

"Is he-?"

"He is safe," Michael affirmed. "I have kept him dormant for his protection since taking him as my vessel. When he regains consciousness, inform him that I will… make arrangements regarding his mother."

"Does that mean-?"

"She will be restored," Michael nodded at Bela. "As you observed, I keep my word."

"…Thanks," Dean said, looking thoughtfully at the angel even as he decided not to say more.

"Will you return?" Michael turned to look at the other two angels.

"Might help make your point if the messenger's coming along to deliver it in person," Gabriel shrugged.

"I will remain," Castiel added. "We have business to finish."

"Very well," Michael nodded, before he tilted back his head and a burst of white light left Adam's mouth, leaving Sam to grab his younger brother before the now-unconscious Adam hit the ground.

"He'll be fine," Gabriel said before any of the others could ask the question. "Just give him a few hours to rest up and he'll be right as rain; I take it you've got somewhere he can take a break?"

"And… other things we need to be getting on with," Dean said, looking at the archangel with a tentative smile. "I take it you're… OK?"

"Still hurts when I do anything too big, but I can still zip around, and I'll be back at my peak in a few weeks," Gabriel nodded. "I'll make sure Mikey goes with the plan to bring Adam's mom back, and then… well, we'll be off the old game plan and it'll be up to us to write a new book."

"…Good luck?" Bela shrugged.

"Hey, you already showed us there's another way," Gabriel smiled reassuringly at her. "You'll be fine."

With those words, the archangel vanished from the room, leaving the three hunters and the angel to exchange incredulous smiles.

"Well," Sam shrugged awkwardly, "that worked out… better than I expected."

"Nobody's dead, nobody's in Hell who didn't deserve it, and we're all still here; I think that counts as a win," Dean grinned as he looked around the small room, before he walked over to take Bela in his arms and give her a warm kiss before stepping back to look at her again. "And you… God, I love you."

"I love you too," Bela replied, a warm smile on her face that Dean would have considered alien to her the first time he'd faced this woman over a rabbit's foot.

For the first time in he couldn't imagine how long, Dean was looking forward to the future for more reasons than taking out the latest monster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the overall plot done, but I do have an epilogue planned to tie up a couple of important details…


	81. Epilogue: The Last Legacy

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The concluding epilogue; I just thought it would be good to show everyone how things have gone for our favourite hunting family since they were able to thwart the Apocalypse _and_ make better plans for facing the consequences.

_**Five Years Later…** _

" _Daddy_!"

No matter how often Dean heard those words, he wasn't sure he'd ever get tired of it, particularly not when he came home after a hunt.

"Hey there, kiddo," he grinned, bending down to pick up the little girl as she ran towards him, sweeping her up in a hug. "How's things?"

"Same," Johanna Abigail Winchester replied as he put her back down, dressed in her usual dark trousers and dark pink shirt, grinning at him with that warm hero-worship he didn't think he'd ever get tired of. "Mommy sold a few things to some rich guys, and Unca Sam an' Aunt Sarah came 'round wit' James."

"Sarah's here too?" Dean grinned at his daughter.

"She needed a break," Johanna returned his grin, her dark hair a sharp contrast with the face that made him think of his mother during those trips back through time. "Her daddy's being a poopy-head."

"She said that?"

"I got the gist," Johanna said, in that teasing tone that she always used when she was trying to copy her parents.

"Well, that's Aunt Sarah's dad for you; he doesn't get our brand of awesome, so he never bothered to try," Dean shrugged.

"Why can't we just tell him you're a hero, Daddy?"

"It'd be… tricky," Dean shrugged, even as he gave the girl a tentative smile. "C'mon; let's get inside."

"Dean!" Bela grinned as he walked into the house, walking over to give him the warm hug that had become just that sweeter in the last couple of months. "How did it go?"

"Simple enough," Dean grinned. "Just a standard salt and burn; only got tricky because people hid it after they did the deed."

"And no regrets about not letting me come along?" Sam put in as he held Jim, the newest Winchester still a month or so away from his first birthday. Johanna had never shown any sign that she was jealous of not being the baby of the family any more, and was actually eager to meet her own little brother, but Dean still wondered how they'd manage to keep this lifestyle up with another kid to worry about.

"Nah," Dean shook his head, putting thoughts of the future aside for the moment. "We need to keep things in order; no point putting all hands on deck if we don't have to… and talking of being on deck, how's your dad?"

"The same," Sarah smiled, stretching her arms as she looked around the room. "He appreciates the work your grandmother's brought in, but he just can't seem to get over the fact that you actually _were_ antique dealers."

"And he can't even prove that you weren't in the job when you met, thanks to all our new contacts," Bela observed with a smile.

"Yeah, that's Grandma for you," Dean affirmed with a cool grin before looking back at Sarah. "Still, I have to appreciate you giving us all those contacts in the first place."

"Well, if I can't help my boyfriend's time-displaced grandmother get a job, what am I still doing in New York?" Sarah grinned.

"And we all appreciate it," Sam said, leaning over to kiss Sarah's forehead and stroke his son's face. As the baby gurgled in his mother's arms, Sam smiled at the baby in a way that made it clear he still couldn't believe that he'd been so lucky. Once Lucifer had been sent back to the Cage and the Apocalypse had been officially put on hold, Sam had basically settled down with Sarah, alternating his time between less regular hunts (often when Dean felt he needed back-up) and working security through one of the firms the Blake auction house occasionally used.

Dean was still a full-time hunter, but Bela had managed to return to some of her old flats to give herself somewhere safe to raise their daughter, even if she had to keep moving from one to the other to make sure that none of Dean's demon enemies worked out where to find them. Deanna still visited as much as possible, but she had also continued in her developing niche as an expert in cursed objects, which had led to Bobby and Sarah using a range of their contacts to help her become an officially qualified antiques expert (as much as any hunter could have an official degree in anything). These days Deanna tended to alternate between being an active hunter and serving as an expert in various antiques for a range of auction houses, taking care to bring any potential curse objects to the attention of other hunters.

As for the rest of Dean's family, Adam had come through his time as Michael's vessel reasonably intact mentally, but once his mother had been brought back to life with no memory of the day or so prior to her death or her time in Heaven, Adam had made it clear that he wanted her kept safe from this part of their world. The rest of the family had understood his decision, and Bobby had managed to work with Jodie Mills to set up a fake backstory that the Milligans had been in Witness Protection after witnessing an organ smuggling ring in operation at Kate's hospital, Kate's amnesia being attributed to a bad reaction to the drugs one of the gang had given her to try and stop her testifying. Dean and Sam still dropped in on Adam on occasion, and Castiel had assured them that various wards were set up around Adam's location to ensure that nothing supernatural found him, but in general they were content to let him make his own life outside of the business, and Dean was actually proud that his youngest brother had made a life outside of hunting.

Looking at the little girl who was now playing with her model Transformers (he'd never been happier that his daughter didn't turn out to be a 'Barbie' girl), Dean felt hope that Johanna would have a chance at a normal life. Dean might 'enjoy' being a hunter himself, but from the moment that Johanna had been born, he'd vowed that he'd do everything in his power to avoid making her deal with the kind of childhood he'd had with John Winchester. His daughter knew the basic details of what was out there, as well as how to protect herself if there was an attack, but it had been made clear that she was never to actually follow them on a hunt.

For the most part Bela had semi-retired from the traditional hunting routine to focus on raising Johanna, with Bobby, Sarah or Deanna taking over as the little girl's guardians when something came up that needed Bela's specific expertise in the field. Dean and Sam still did most of the legwork these days, but things had frankly become a lot simpler since the Apocalypse ended and Gabriel returned to Heaven to keep an eye on Michael.

It wasn't as though the monsters had stopped _completely_ , but they had a tentative 'truce' with Crowley after he'd been 'persuaded' to return Bobby's soul after their deal which had pretty much taken demons off the board. Obviously getting the demons to go back to Hell for good wasn't an option, but Crowley had agreed to only make deals with people who clearly knew what they were doing and cut down on any demons who'd basically force other people to make a deal, as well as restricting the number of active demons to pre-Apocalypse levels. There'd been a few interesting creatures out and about, such as their run-in with those dragons who had been attempting some kind of ritual, but for the most part Dean felt that everything had returned to the way it had been on those early days, when he and Sam had been taking down monsters and not having to worry about angels and the Apocalypse.

Admittedly, a strange part of Dean regretted that Castiel wasn't as significant a part of their lives as he'd been during the Apocalypse, but he appreciated that the angel was busy rebuilding Heaven with Michael and Gabriel. Raphael apparently still wasn't totally satisfied at the decision to call off the Apocalypse, but with Gabriel firmly against it and Michael apparently giving considerable thought to the Winchesters' words, the third remaining archangel seemed content to fume in silence and see how things played out. Castiel still showed up when the Winchesters were dealing with a suitably imposing hunt or found any sign of angelic involvement on Earth, and would occasionally drop in for a more straightforward visit if things had been quiet on both fronts, but Dean had to accept that their angelic ally had bigger concerns than them these days…

The hunter's moment of contemplation was brought to an abrupt end when the closet door was suddenly surrounded by a brilliant white glow. The adults had just moved into a defensive position around Sarah and the children before it burst open and a tall, thin, dark-haired man in an old-fashioned blue suit stumbled out of the door, looking urgently around the room before his gaze settled on Dean and Sam.

"Which of you is John Winchester?"

"What?" the Winchesters said, Sarah tightening her hold on James as Bela pushed Johanna behind her.

"Please, time is of the essence!" the man said urgently. "Which of you is John Winchester?"

"Uh… neither of us?" Sam said, looking uncertainly at the new arrival.

"That's impossible," the man said

"That's absolutely… what did I do wrong?"

"Who… are you?" Dean quickly corrected his initial choice of words.

"Not now; I'm thinking," the man said.

"Are you from Narnia?"

"Wha-?" the man began, looking at Johanna as she looked curiously at him from behind her mother. Using the moment of distraction, Sarah pulled out the bottle of holy water that she had kept on herself since she reunited with the Winchesters and threw its contents in the man's face. The group took a moment to confirm that the man had no reaction to the water before Dean grabbed the man and slammed him against the wall.

"I assure you, I am not a demon, and there is no need for violence," the man said, looking indignantly at Dean after getting past his initial wince of pain. "One of you must-"

"The only one here who 'must' do anything is you," Dean glared at the man. "You don't just get to walk out of a closet into our _home_ asking about my dad and then start criticising-"

"Your father?" the man interjected, looking at Dean with new intensity. "You are John Winchester's son?"

"I'm named after him!" Johanna said, grinning over at the man before Dean or Bela could stop her. "He's my grandpa!"

"Johanna," Bela looked pointedly at her daughter.

"But Mommy, he's not bad; Aunt Sarah tested him with the water!" Johanna smiled back at her mother.

"Jo-" Dean began, but stopped when he looked at the strange man and saw the new arrival staring at his daughter as though she'd just hit him in the face.

"Impossible…" the man said, shaking his head in denial.

"What?" Dean looked intently at their strange guest. "What does my dad have to do with anything?"

"Your… dad?" The man looked at Dean with new intensity. "You are John Winchester's son?"

"We both are," Sam said, moving to stand beside Dean. "And who are you?"

The man looked between Dean and Sam for a few moments, before he sighed and nodded.

"My name is Henry Winchester," the man said. "I'm your grandfather."

"…Huh," Sarah looked over at Bela. "Should I be surprised that I'm _not_ surprised about that?"

"Well, it's not like he's the first time-displaced grandparent we've dealt with since we married these idiots," Bela smiled.

" _Hey_!" Dean and Sam turned back to glare mockingly at her.

"Mommy!" Johanna looked anxiously at her mother. "Daddy's not an idiot!"

"No, he's just got his own style of doing things," Bela grinned.

"There's… you have another-?" the man who was apparently Henry Winchester began.

"Maternal grandmother," Sam clarified.

"Maybe you knew her back in the day?" Sarah asked, looking at him with a thoughtful expression. "I mean, I assume you knew something about the supernatural if you ended up… well, _here_ …"

"How did you do that anyway?" Dean looked at the man with a new intensity. "I mean, what's to stop someone else just zapping in through another cupboard like we became the new exit for Narnia?"

As though in response to Dean's words, the closet door rattled again, prompting Bela to grab Johanna in her arms and run out of the room with Sarah and the baby, leaving Dean and Sam to take up a defensive stance alongside their apparent grandfather. The door opened in another burst of bright light and a young woman emerged from the closet, wearing a ballgown that seemed to be from the same era as the man's suit, the gown splattered with blood and her eyes completely black.

"Hello, Henry," she grinned mockingly at the new arrival. "You always did forget the finer details of your spells."

"And who the Hell are you?" Sam asked.

"Abaddon, Knight of Hell, at your service," the woman mockingly curtseyed at Sam before focusing her gaze back on Henry. "Now then, why don't you be a doll and give me what I want, and I promise to kill you and your friends here quickly."

"You know I can't do that," Henry

"You're not a fighter, Henry," Abaddon observed mockingly.

"Maybe he's not," Dean said with a cool glare, "but we've got a few friends who probably can. _Cas_! We've got a Knight of Hell down-!"

Abaddon lifted her arms and sent Sam and Dean flying into the walls, only to find herself with an angel blade held against her throat and a new figure standing before her in a suit and trenchcoat.

"Release them," the figure said coolly.

"Who… Castiel?" Abaddon looked at the new arrival in surprise, before she broke into a chuckle. "Do you really think _you_ can stop me?"

"Potentially not," Castiel said, even as he kept the blade against the demon's throat. "But I'm not alone."

"And when the back-up is me, he doesn't really need that much more," Gabriel added, as the archangel suddenly appeared in front of the demon. "Hey there, Toots."

Eyes widening in panic, Abaddon threw back her head and leapt from the woman's mouth in a burst of smoke, only for Castiel and Gabriel to 'stab' the smoke with their angel blades in one hand while the other glowed with white light while pointing at the demon. The smoke almost seemed to be screaming as it crackled in the air above them, before the twisted experience came to a halt and the smoke dissipated, leaving the woman to be caught by Gabriel as she fell to the ground.

"Gotcha," the archangel said, grinning at the woman as he picked her up bridal-style and put her down on a nearby couch.

"Is she-?" Henry began, looking uncertainly at the woman.

"She will recover," Castiel said, although Dean noted a faint glow from Gabriel's hand that suggested it wasn't going to be a simple job. "She merely needs rest."

"Th… thank you," Henry said, looking at the two men in confusion. "Who are-?"

"I am Castiel."

"And I'm Gabriel," the archangel added as he stood up with a nonchalant grin. "Y'know, it still feels odd just _saying_ that…"

"…What?" Henry said, looking at the two angels in awe before he turned to look at Dean and Sam. "You… you know _angels_?"

"War buddies," Dean shrugged. "They helped us save the world, Cas saved us from Hell when a couple of deals went bad, Gabe spent a few minutes literally inside my wife; it's weird, but it's a whole thing."

"And maybe now you could spare the time to answer a few of _our_ questions?" Sam said, folding his arms as he looked at Henry. "Starting with what the Hell you're doing coming out of a closet with a Knight of Hell behind you looking for Dad?"

* * *

The next few hours were the most complicated and emotionally trying time Dean had experienced since Bela had given birth, when Dean had been practically terrified that he was going to drop the baby or make some kind of mistake no matter how often everyone else had assured him that he was going to be a great father. Learning that the man John Winchester had hated for abandoning him had actually had a good reason for it had been a bit jarring at first, but considering the situation he'd been facing when he made the time jump, Dean had to concede that the man's reasons had been sound enough, and he appreciated that the man had intended to go back.  
  
Of course, stopping him from trying to find another way to go back had been hard, but as Gabriel had pointed out, there was no way that someone with Henry's knowledge would be 'allowed' to raise John Winchester to prepare him for the supernatural under any other circumstances than what he'd endured. Even apart from that, there was no way Dean would allow anything that would risk creating a timeline where Johanna didn't exist, and Sam had made it clear that he had the same sentiment where Jim's existence was concerned. That said, once Josie had regained consciousness, she had been surprisingly accepting of the situation, thanking the angels for dealing with Abaddon and encouraging Henry to consider the potential of their new lives rather than brood on what might have been.  
  
Dean was fairly sure there was more to the woman's reasons than just not wanting to fixate on the past, but if it meant that their grandfather wasn't going to basically try and do on purpose what Marty McFly did by accident, he supposed he could deal with that.  
  
Despite the initial reluctance of Larry Ganem to share his information with them, it didn't take long for the group to find the geographical location of the Men of Letters bunker in Kansas. The moment he led his family walked into the bunker, taking in the scope of the building and establishing the scale of its defensive wards, Dean knew that they had found exactly what he was looking for.  
  
 _Safe, secure, close enough to a major city for schools, and we've even got a couple of conventional houses in the area we could stay in if anyone's coming over_ …  
  
Dean wasn't sure how they'd been lucky enough for time travel to give them these kind of advantages when everything he'd seen in the movies suggested it screwed things up more than it helped, but if it helped him give his daughter a normal life, he wasn't going to complain.  
  
Looking over at Bela as she took a sword out of Johanna's hands and teasingly assured the little girl that she could practise with the weapon when she was older, Dean didn't know what kind of warped chain of fortune had led to him falling in love with a former thief who he'd once been willing to kill just for being such a bitch, but he wasn't going to complain. He finally got Sam's desire for a normal life, and even if it was in a weird way involving time travel, escaping from Hell, and cursed paintings, he was happier than he'd ever imagined he could be.  
  
 _Maybe we can give the new kid a single place to live while we keep up with the hunts…_  
  
Even as a part of him had to wonder what other secrets lurked in their family tree, Dean wasn't going to object to the idea of them finally having a home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, that's the end of this series; I just rather liked the idea of the Men of Letters Bunker being the Winchesters' first true home since Mary's death, so wanted to give them another chance to start living there, particularly when they had access to better allies to take down Abaddon and save Josie with such comparatively limited effort this time around.
> 
> No plans to take this fic any further now that the bunker has been claimed, Abaddon is dead, and they have no reason to make some of their bigger mistakes such making contact with Metatron or taking the Mark from Cain, but if anyone comes up with something they'd like to see this strange new generation of Winchesters deal with, let me know (I may do something with the British Men of Letters once I've had time to analyse that storyline in depth).


End file.
